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I examined my chipped fingernail polish as I sat nervously in the offices of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Douglas County, a match-based men-toring program. I was there for my first round of interviews to become a Big Sister, and was criticizing everything about myself. Would the caseworker care that I had a hot pink strand in my hair? When she examined my driving record and saw my fender bender, would she deem me unsafe to transport a child? I wanted to become a Big Sister so badly that I was con-vinced that she would find something wrong with my application or with me.

An hour later, my anxiety was put to rest.

The caseworker had complimented me on my hair and told me that my minor car accident could happen to anyone. She assured me that I would be fine through the rest of the interview process, and, sure enough, she was right. A few weeks later, I got a call saying I had been approved.

Approximately 150 University of Kansas stu-dents have received the same call, giving them the news that after six weeks of interviews and background checks, they had been accepted as a Big Brother or Big Sister. Big Brothers Big Sisters is a nationwide organization that matches adult mentor volunteers (Bigs) with

children (Littles) who are between the ages of 5 and 17 from a single-parent household.

Currently, the Douglas County office has 350 to 400 active matches and 95 children on a waiting list. It’s not uncommon for the children in the program to live below the poverty line, have an incarcerated parent or have experi-enced some form of abuse. “A lot of the kids may not have an adult in their lives who’s a pos-itive influence,” says Cathy Brashler, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Douglas County. “That’s where a Big can really fill in.”

Bigs have two options when applying for the program: Bigs in Schools or the commu-

nity-based program. With Bigs in Schools, volunteers meet their Littles at their school for 30 minutes to an hour per week to have lunch, play outside, visit the library or simply hang out. Bigs must receive permission from the organization’s local office to take their Littles off school grounds. The community-based pro-gram asks that Bigs devote two to three hours each week to their Littles. Matches aren’t con-fined to school grounds; they’re able to take their Littles out for a variety of activities.

Every week that I hang out with my 11-year-old Little, Sina, for three hours, I can let go of my college-student stress. When we go to the

Students’ challenges &

priceless rewards of

volunteering with Big Brothers

Big Sisters

Big Love| TAYLOR LEWIS |

FEATURE

Photos by Jessica JanaszBigs in Schools: Sarah Hutton, a junior from Colorado Springs and Bigs on Campus activities chair, visits her Little Sister at school.

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Bigs on CampusThis school year marked the birth

of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Stu-dent Club. The club gives Big Broth-ers Big Sisters’ 150 student volunteers a place to meet, share their experi-ences and brainstorm group activities for the club members’ Little Brothers and Sisters.

“There’s not really that much of an involvement between the Bigs, and we just wanted a way to interact with each other,” says two-year Big Sister Sarah Hutton, a junior from Colorado Springs and the club’s activities chair.

So far, the club, which meets once a month, has organized a campus scavenger hunt and a trip to a pump-kin patch for members’ Littles. The group plans to attend Lawrence’s Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade on Saturday.

park, I ignore the fact that I’m 20 and instead focus on how high I can swing. During our girls’ nights when we make s’mores and watch chick flicks, I’m unconcerned with the number of cal-ories I’m consuming and am instead engrossed in Sina’s latest sixth-grade gossip.

As any Big can tell you, volunteering with the organization comes with its ups and downs. The time commitment can be a problem for some volunteers, but giving to the Lawrence community in a way that transports you back to childhood is a definite plus. Brashler describes volunteering with the organization as a “feel-good” activity. She’s seen matches grow and Littles open up to their Bigs about their lives. “You do get the impression that you begin to matter to this person,” she says. “They look forward to seeing you, they look up to you and they begin talking to you about things that they wouldn’t talk to their parents about.”

A strong match can benefit the child. Every year, the organization surveys the children and their parents to better understanding how the match has affected the child, Brashler says, and 50 to 75 percent of the time, Littles have grown from the experience. Their personalities have developed, their communication skills have improved and they have better self-con-fidence. For the children with Bigs in Schools, their teachers are surveyed, and they say they have often seen an improvement in the child’s grades as well as attitudes, and overall, the kids relate better to their teachers and peers.

Emily Lubarsky, a junior from Shawnee, has been a Big with Bigs in Schools for a year and a half. Each week, she meets her Little, Haylee, at school where the two play kickball, make crafts or their personal favorite, paint pictures. When Haylee switched elementary schools last year, Lubarsky moved with her, easing the transition to a new school and proving that she would be a constant figure. For that reason, she is now comfortable enough to ask for advice when it comes to school or friendship problems. “Some of these kids have so much craziness in their lives,” Lubarsky says. “This is just a way to give them one steady thing that’s going to happen every day.”

Similarly, Kelsey Nelson, a junior from Springfield, Ill., has seen her community-based match progress. When the two were matched one year ago, her 6-year-old Little, Aliyah, was so shy that she wouldn’t even look Nelson in the eye. Figuring out activities was a guess-ing game for Nelson, who at times questioned whether or not Aliyah was having fun. “Now, if we’re in the middle of doing an activity and

she’s not having fun, she’s like ‘I’m bored; I want to go’,” Nelson says. “She feels totally comfortable.”

Comfort in a match is ideal, but there are times when that comfort poses an obstacle for the Big. Hilary Collert is a junior from Oklahoma City who has been matched with 14-year-old Senia for almost a year and a half. When apply-ing for the community-based program, Collert requested an older Little because she wanted someone old enough to come to her for advice. But when Senia asked her about dating, Collert found herself searching for the right words. “I didn’t really know how to respond to that be-cause my parents were strict about me dating,” Collert says. “A lot of the kids I grew up with were dating at 13 or 14, but I wasn’t allowed to talk to boys until I was 16. I just tried to tell her my experience and let her decide from there what she wanted.”

The time commitment can be another chal-lenge. Brashler says that volunteers will often be eager to apply for the community-based program, but after a couple of months, they re-alize that it is a bigger time commitment than they anticipated. For this reason, college vol-unteers are encouraged to start off with Bigs in Schools. There is a set schedule and it requires a maximum of one hour per week.

Luke Noll, a senior from Nortonville, says the time commitment of the community-based program is worth it. His little brother, Don’na, is a 6-year-old with excellent manners, an inquisi-tive mind and a passion for learning. The two like to hang out at parks, have been fishing and swimming, and have even made a trip to the To-peka Zoo. “Sometimes, it’s hard for me to get up and go across town and say, ‘I’m going to hang out with a 6-year-old,” he says. “But the sec-ond he gets in the truck, I get excited. You think you don’t have time for this, but when those two hours are over, you’re glad you did this.”

Surprisingly, Brashler says that the agency sees few behavioral problems within matches, despite the wide range of ages of Littles. Typi-cally, she says, the kids are so excited to have someone to spend time with that they don’t want to do anything to disappoint or disobey their Bigs.

But volunteers should remember that the kids are still kids. Ethan Hrabe, a junior from Olathe, has been matched with his 6-year-old little, Antonio, for five months. Although he’s not a difficult child, Antonio will at times become upset about his 6-year-old problems. Rather than disciplining him, though, Hrabe will let him have his moment. “You have to remember that

he’s still a little boy,” Hrabe says. “You just have to roll with it and as an adult, understand that they’re going to deal with it how they’re going to deal with it.”

Although the majority of the children don’t have behavioral problems, during the lengthy interview process, volunteers specify what conditions they feel comfortable working with. After attending an orientation session, volun-teers fill out an application where they share their own interests and state who they’re com-fortable with, whether that be a handicapped child, an abused child, a child with learning disabilities, etc.

After that, volunteers are brought in for an interview to give the caseworkers a better sense of who they are. Four references are re-quired for the community-based program and three for Bigs in Schools. Five different back-ground checks are performed and your driv-ing record is examined. For community-based Bigs, a caseworker then comes to your home to make sure it’s a safe environment and ad-ministers a second interview. This interview consists of a series of hypothetical questions to see how you would react if placed in a prob-lematic situation with your Little.

After the interviews and background checks, your file is given to a team of volunteers with experience in mental health, child servic-es and law enforcement for one final examina-tion. Once approved, the agency finds files of compatible Littles for you to pore through and determine your best match.

After I was approved, I went in to see that my caseworker had extracted three files of po-tential Little Sisters for me to look through. The first two girls seemed great, but it was the last profile that caught my eye. Her name was Sina. She was 10-years-old and had been Big Sister-less for a while. She was quiet but funny, and we had a lot of the same interests.

Perhaps reading too far into the signs, I excitedly noted that our dads shared the same name and that one of my elementary school best friends was named Sina. Without any hes-itation, I told my caseworker that I would love to have Sina has a Little. Sixteen months and an inseparable bond later, I know that I made the right choice.

| TAYLOR LEWIS |

FEATURE