Every year, University of Indianapolis students build connections with elementary school students through the College Mentors for Kids program, working with Indianapolis youth to create impactful mentorship experiences.
College Mentors for Kids, founded in 1996, is an East-Midwestern United States nonprofit organization with national offices located in Indianapolis striving to create brighter futures for American youth, according to its website.
Senior biology major Torie Potters and graduate physical therapy student Alli Bowman are co-presidents of UIndy’s CMK chapter, which is one of 31 nationwide locations to mentor youth in American schools.
According to its Instagram, the goal of UIndy CMK is “connecting kids to college students through weekly on-campus activities that inspire growth, confidence and brighter futures.”
Potters, who has participated in the program for four years, said the purpose of the program is to partner college students to help the “little buddies” to inspire their growth and future. It is a program where many children look up to the mentors, she said, and mentors not realizing how much they are gaining from giving back to these children. Bowman said she is on the executive team, and she gets to not only see the mentees grow, but their mentors along with them.
“Here at UIndy, we partner with IPS schools 19 and 34. We set the goal to bring about 50 buddies onto campus,” Bowman said. “We pair them one on one with the college student for the whole year to just have a mentorship with a college student. See what college is like, we teach them about careers, we teach about community service, stuff like that. It’s all education based, but we’re really focused on having fun and it’s mainly just to provide them with a mentor to help them kind of grow.”
When pairing mentors to their mentees, Bowman said a lot of time goes into making good pairings.
“All the college students are interviewed by one of our staff members who takes notes to figure it all out,” Bowman said. “The kids are applied to the program by their parents, and it [the application] asks them questions, and based on their answers to those questions, they have a conversation with the teacher at the school before they’re then paired with the college kids.”
A parent’s impression on buddy-to-mentor pairings are also considered, Potters said, to ensure they feel safe and confident with the pairing. Once pairings have been made, all kinds of activities and events occur throughout the year, Bowman said. Upcoming events and their monthly schedules can be found on its Instagram.
For example, one event involved community service, having buddies and their mentors package hygiene bags to hand out to those in need in downtown Indianapolis, Potters said.
For the rest of CMK’s activities, Bowman said they are separated into three categories: higher career education, community service or experiencing culture and diversity. To educate and create experiences for both the mentors and buddies, they host canned food drives, service dogs have come in and people involved in different careers to speak to the group such as teachers, doctors and medical students, Bowman said. For Potters, mentorship is a powerful tool — even for college students.
“Mentorship is important, starting at a young age,” Potter said. “Even U.S. college students in life now, we’re mentored too, whether it’s by your professors or your parents, or different people in your life, so we know the power that mentorship has, and we’re glad we get to carry that out.”
The CMK program is also a great resume builder for mentors to build the leadership skills and positive qualities that can aid in any potential work environment, Bowman said.
“First thing I tell parents, is, one, it’s a completely free program. Why don’t you give it a try? You have nothing to lose by trying it, because we’re completely free to your child.” To find more information about College Mentors for Kids, go to collegementors.org.
