As graduation season approaches, many young people will be heading across the stage to pick up their official documents.
But for some girls, getting to graduation was a challenge they couldn't have achieved without a Big Sisters Study Buddy.
Take for instance Olimpia, who was a rebellious teenager in Grade 9 when she first met her Study Buddy, a mentor who helped her improve her academics.
“I dropped bombs on Anna, testing her to see if she would stick around,” Olimpia said about her first year in the mentoring program with her Study Buddy.
Despite the early emotional fireworks, Anna stayed by her side, and the relationship paid off in success for Olimpia.
“At the end of the day, Olimpia had self-perceptions that weren’t true,” recalled Anna of the experience. “Olimpia’s teachers and some of the other adults in her life were not supportive, viewing Olimpia as a problem kid on her way to dropping out of high school. But as I got to know her, she began to see otherwise.”
Now, Olimpia is in her first year at Langara College and is hoping to complete her degree in psychology or social work at the University of British Columbia.
“Without Anna’s influence in my life, I probably wouldn’t be going to college,” said Olimpia.
Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland (Big Sisters BCLM) is in need of Study Buddy volunteers throughout the Lower Mainland, especially in Burnaby and the Tri-Cities.
The Study Buddy program is a weekly one-to-one mentoring relationship that focuses on school work.
A study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, shows that adults who had a mentor as a child are more likely to volunteer, donate, complete post- secondary education and feel confident.
“Mentoring has a powerful impact,” said Brenda Gershkovitch, executive director of Big Sisters BCLM.
“Research shows that students who meet regularly with their mentors are 52% less likely than their peers to skip a day of school and 37% less likely to skip a class. Plus, girls with a mentor are four times less likely than their peers to bully, fight, lie or lose their temper.”
In 2016, Big Sisters BCLM matched 775 girls in the Lower Mainland. There are currently 141 girls ready to be matched.
For more information on how to become a Study Buddy volunteer, visit www.bigsister.bc.ca/study-buddy.
