Mentoring children can be fun and educational for both the mentor and the “mentee,” at least that is the idea behind a new afterschool-tutoring club, based at Stawamus Elementary.
At Quest Club, university students, or big-buddies, are paired with little buddies, who are children in Grades 3 to 6.
The program is a partnership between Quest University and Big Brothers, Big Sisters Sea to Sky Corridor.
The free program is aimed at children who are having some difficulty in school and who could not otherwise afford tutoring services, according to Lorna Avis, the club’s mentoring coordinator from Big Brothers, Big Sisters.
“The main goals of the program is to cultivate a friendship and a bond between the mentor and the mentee, and secondarily to de-stigmatize education by making learning fun and interactive, and by catering to the student’s learning needs and learning style,” said Avis.
Through one-to-one mentoring, the tutors help the young students improve their academic abilities; increase their confidence, social skills and enjoyment at school, according to Avis.
Play is also integrated into the learning, Avis said. Playing soccer helps some children learn math, for example.
The children also get a healthy snack before tutoring begins and learn about making healthy food choices, such as choosing brown bread over white. Children also get introduced to foods they may not have tried before, Avis said.
Second year Quest student Maya Greenberg, 19 was one of the founders of the club and said it is a good way for the university’s students to engage with the wider community.
“There are all of us Quest students up on a hill and keen to do… community work, but there isn’t much interaction between Quest and the Squamish community and so I thought this was a really good way for us to connect,” said Greenberg.
Being a mentor is also fun and rewarding, she said.
“[The children] have been saying more and more that they are really looking forward to coming back every week and have been getting more excited about learning, and they have been coming up with really creative ways to integrate learning into the games that they like to play, which is always fun to see,” Greenberg said.
The club currently has about 15 students enrolled and there are hopes to expand in coming years, according to Ann Marie McKenzie, program manager at Big Brothers of the Sea to Sky Corridor.
“There has been a need for free academic support services in Squamish for some time,” said McKenzie.
The Sea to Sky school board is currently considering the fate of Stawamus Elementary, where the club is held, and McKenzie said she is working to find somewhere else to host the club if the school is closed.
The program officially got underway in January and is funded by a $5,000 donation from The Whistler Blackcomb Foundation.
For more information, contact Ann Marie McKenzie Big Brothers of the Sea-to-Sky Corridorat 604-892-3125 or, [email protected].
