Six girls, three elementary students, three high school students, gathered in a small classroom at State Road Elementary School late in the afternoon. They rolled up tiny slips of paper, delicately placed them in a glass bottle and poured sand within to cover the scribe on each of the sheets. The bottles were not meant to be heaved into the depths of the ocean but instead held in safekeeping until some time in the future.
“We all got a piece of paper and wrote on it a letter to our future selves in the form of advice, encouragement or anything we wanted, ” FHS Mentor Training student senior Emily Bemis said. “We did this so we could open it sometime in the future to remember what our old selves were like and how we have changed and grown. The younger girls all decided that they wanted to open theirs after graduating high school.”
Every Tuesday and Thursday, the three Mentor Training students spend a half an hour at State Road Elementary School working with two fifth graders and a fourth grader. Having the passion for working with elementary students, Bemis along with two other high schoolers chose this as their year long community service project.
Principal Barry Tiemann and the counselors at State Road Elementary set up the bi-weekly visits between the high schoolers and elementary girls in order for them to gain positive influences in their lives, much like Big Brothers Big Sisters of America does.
“I chose this project because I like working with kids and I want to be a teacher; it seemed like a perfect fit to get experience,” Bemis said. “I would definitely consider joining the Big Brother Big Sister program, because I have really enjoyed working with the girls. I like having the ability to have a positive impact on someone’s life.”
Public/Private Ventures did a study on the impact a role model has on youth by matching youth with a “Big Brother” or “Big Sister” for an average of one year. The results were conclusive, finding that youth who had a “Big Brother or Big Sister” were 47 percent less likely to use illegal drugs, 27 percent less likely to begin using alcohol and 52 percent less likely to skip school compared to youth who were not in the program.
“Mr. Teimann really thought the girls could benefit from our mentoring,” senior Abby Metcalfe said. “On the outside they seem like they have a good home life, but until you get to know them, you don’t realize what could be going on in their lives. It feels great to give back and help others.”
Games of Jenga and Pictionary are played in the afternoons as well as tutoring and the occasional field trip to get lunch in order to get the elementary schoolers away from a school environment.
“My favorite thing we have done was when the high schoolers took us to Buffalo Wild Wings,” one of the elementary students said. “It was fun to go somewhere and get to leave school to hang out with the high schoolers.”
While the teens originally used the community service for a class requirement, it has evolved into more than just that for the high schoolers. For junior Katrina Huotari, the opportunity to work with younger students has made a personal impact.
“They look up to us and ask us about things that go on in our lives,” Huotari said. “They make me want to be a better role model and become a better influence on people.”