Enthusiastic Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto student mentors from GBC pose for a photo together.
Photo courtesy of GBC’s Community Partnerships Office.
Have you ever experienced lack of knowledge, self-confidence or necessary skills and that you needed guidance from someone more mature and wise, whose advice could catapult you up the ladder?
George Brown College (GBC) in partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto (BBBST) has started its second year of “Pumped For Post Sec” (PFPS) program where high school participants are paired in activities with current post-secondary students. Volunteering their time, college students provide mentoring service in order to help younger brothers and sisters to make career choices and achieve their overall goal of successfully finishing high school and getting into post-secondary education.
“The pumped for post secondary program is to promote and encourage youth to become more invested in their education after high school. We share our experience as mentors to help out mentees get a better idea on what kind of education they want for themselves. We also make each session as enjoyable as possible with games, laughs and involvement,” said Raymund Hip Loy Lee, a second year mentor from fitness health promotion program and student life ambassador.
Program recruitment begins from collecting applications through their website www.bbbst.com at the end of August and early September. An applicant must be a current, full-time GBC student with strong desire to work with youth, develop leadership and facilitation skills, network with peers from other programs and make new friends.
“It was a very intense process! The interview with the two co-ordinators of the program was a long and excruciating hour! Filled with lots of laughter and fun. You’ll walk into the interview thinking it’s a job interview, and moments after the interview begins, you feel like you’re just talking to two good friends!”, said Angelo Quintano, a child and youth work program student. “They did ask some challenging questions, but if you answer it as honest as you can you’ll be fine!”
After a successful screening and interview, where potential mentors must provide a satisfactory criminal record check and three positive references, the candidates attend mandatory volunteer safety training provided by the agency. Only the most candid and enthusiastic ones continue participation after signing legal documents to ensure safety procedures and confidentiality of the mentees. They are required to attend 13 sessions on campus with high-school students from October to April.
“So far, I can only say amazing things about it! Both mentors and mentees enjoy coming to the session! Of course, the first session was tough but sure enough, having a bunch of well-behaved, yet contagiously enthusiastic mentors broke the mentees’ wall of shyness to pieces, and by the next session, everyone was looking forward to seeing each other!” said Quintano.
Most of the mentees are in their grades 10-12 and come from various high schools across the GTA, whose parents did not attend post-secondary education. Thus, for most of them the program is a brilliant opportunity to explore the options for post-secondary education and maybe their first visit to downtown Toronto.
Designed as not a typical one-on-one mentoring initiative, the program includes sessions of group and diverse activities such as visits to the distillery district where the mentees may attend improv classes in the GBC theater school; career and post-secondary education workshops; fashion night at Casa Loma campus; campus scavenger hunt; volleyball practice with GBC Huskies; skating and many more. The sessions are an interactive way to learn about GBC’s programs and services from current college students.
“Communication is essential! If our mentees are shy it is up to us as mentors to open up the doors to communication and let them know that we are there to help them! Also, a very important skill is humor; laughing is universal to all ages, if we can laugh together we can learn together,” said Hip Loy Lee.
The success of this program is demonstrated by 31 per cent increase in number of students participating this year in GBC. About 98 per cent of the mentors are first generation post-secondary students whose parents did not attend college which brings more exposure and interpersonal connection between the participants.
“I grew up as an only child and saw commercials on television about having a big brother, when I contacted the community partnership office at St. James campus, I learned of Big Brothers Big Sisters and handed in an application. Now I have the chance to be someone’s big brother. I think there always was a desire for me to be someone’s big brother,” said Hip Loy Lee.
Over the past century Big Brothers Big Sisters of Toronto has matched over 60,000 children and youth with volunteer mentors. Most of the students participating in the PFPS program have already demonstrated their interest to stay with the organization, seeing an opportunity to improve their leadership skills and provide services to the youth in Toronto.
“Big Brothers Big Sisters Toronto has definitely opened my eyes to programs where I can see myself working in! In fact, I would love to work with BBBST once I finish my program; not only are they a prestigious organization, but they are a very engaging and insightful people to work with! If the co-ordinators are reading this right now, please hire me!” said Quintano.
Students interested to be involved in the program can contact the community partnership office imthefirst@georgebrown.ca for more information.
