Group mentors young students

When IU senior Andrew Salamone stepped on campus his freshman year, he knew he wanted to join an organization that not only had a long history at IU, but also promoted a mission he believed in.

Like most freshmen looking for a way to get involved on campus, he went to the Student Involvement Fair at the IMU, where he came across College Mentors.

College Mentors is a nonprofit organization that pairs college students with young students, mostly in elementary schools, to help them understand the opportunities that higher education provides.

The organization develops peer mentoring relationships between the two groups.
According to the College Mentors website, the IU-Bloomington chapter of the organization has a rich history.

In 1996, the first pilot program of the organization began at Indiana University and Butler University after IU students Heidi Schmidt and Kristin Huang found a similar goal: “to improve children’s lives by encouraging education.”

After it was founded at IU, the organization expanded to 23 college campuses, including universities in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and New York.

Currently, the IU-Bloomington chapter and its almost 110 student volunteers pair with Fairview Elementary School and Arlington Heights Elementary. Between the two schools, the chapter serves 90 students between first and sixth grades.

“Generally, the kids involved come from low-income homes and/or would be first generation college students,” Salamone, now the president of College Mentors, said.

Only 11 percent of students born into the bottom income quartile obtain bachelor’s degrees, while 79 percent of students born into the top income quartile tend to obtain their bachelor’s degree, according to the Postsecondary Education Opportunity website.

Of Monroe County residents, 24.7 percent live below the poverty line, 8.9 percent higher than the stage average of 15.8 percent, according to the 2010 census.

Salamone believes that reducing the high poverty level in Monroe County is a multi-step process, but it should start with education.

“Our program believes that the process begins and ends with educating our youth,” Salamone said. “The kids who participate in College Mentors visit a college campus 20 times a year. This frequent immersion into an environment filled with as much energy as IU provides our kids with quite a preview of what higher education can offer them.”

The chapter buses the students from their school to Showalter Fountain every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon to engage in activities that tend to focus on higher education and career, culture and diversity, and community service.

“We have partnered with Phi Delta Epsilon pre-medical fraternity to teach the kids about science topics, made blankets for the Ronald McDonald house, taught the kids about business before making a lemonade stand in the arboretum, among many others,” Salamone said.

Last week, College Mentors worked with Kappa Kappa Gamma  and Phi Mu to host a holiday party activity with the students.

“In the future, we hope to partner with even more fraternities and sororities for this event,” Salamone said.

Other goals that Salamone hopes to accomplish with College Mentors is to expand the program by including an additional partner school in order to serve 40 more students.

Vice President of College Mentors and IU senior Taylor Twiggs says she has learned much from the children that she is a “buddy” to.

“Doing activities with the kids that expose them to giving back to others have meant a lot to me,” Twiggs said. “For example, making blankets for others kids at Riley Children’s Hospital.

It is very powerful to see kids giving back to other kids that are in need. Being involved with College Mentors has allowed me to have a positive impact on the lives of many children and my time spent with the kids has taught me valuable lessons about working with children who need a little extra encouragement.”