Big Brother Big Sisters Greater Dallas is trying to help set Irving High School students up for success, with the help of volunteer mentors.
Big Brother Big Sisters Greater Dallas is trying to help set Irving High School students up for success, with the help of volunteer mentors.
"So these kids have already raised their hand saying 'I want to go on. I want to do more after high school. I want to further my education,'" Big Brothers Big Sisters Greater Dallas President Jenny Harper said.
Big Brothers Big Sisters needs about 100 mentors in the next 30 days for its Mentor 2.0 Program at Irving High School because, for the first time, freshmen will be given a mentor. That has doubled the need for volunteers this year.
"Most of them are first-generation graduates into college," Harper said. "So they need additional support. They don't know what they don't know."
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"There's just a lot going on academically, social pressures, personally, with maybe navigating challenging family dynamics," mentor Christin Standford said. "I think you see children coming out of their shells and opening up."
Mentors meet with their students one day a week online, and one day a month in person.
Sign up to be a Big Brother Big Sisters mentor
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"That's where it helps to have a mentor who really is looking at the student as a whole and as a person," Standford said. Her first mentee has already graduated high school. "When I think back to that I think, I wish I would have had somebody like me."
A mentor to listen, advise, and help guide.
"It's the kind of thing that you do because it makes you feel good, just as much as it is for the impact that you're making," Stanford said. "I'm so grateful that I finally said 'yes.'"
If you're interested in the Big Brothers Big Sister Mentor 2.0 Program, click here.
