by Channing Young, sports editor

Early each Friday morning, seniors Kaila Jones, Mitch Scarmardo and Ryan Anderson head to Pebble Creek Elementary School to visit with their assigned mentees–elementary age students as young as kindergartners.

“I wanted to get involved and start helping people that were younger than me,” Jones said. “I get to help [my mentee] and let her know there’s nothing wrong with her and she can learn from these things which will benefit her in the long run, but she would never know that because she doesn’t have someone to guide her through it.”

The elementary students are assigned a mentor after their second week in the Tiger Mentors program. The children are selected based on their backgrounds and needs–for example, if parents are unable to give a child much attention due to work, or if the child needs extra help in their schoolwork, a mentor is assigned to them.

“We just hang out with them and kinda act like a student,” Scarmardo said. “We get to be their best friends.”

When the mentors arrive in the morning, the mentors sit with their assigned mentees and talk with them and ask them questions about their week. Jones said the experience is especially rewarding for her.

“I like it because I like helping someone who doesn’t have the opportunities that I was blessed with,” Jones said. “Basically I just feel the need to help people who don’t have parents as supportive as I do.”

Jones said she goes the extra mile and makes sure to tutor her mentee in math and takes her out to eat every once in a while. Jones returned after her junior year to mentor the same little girl and has continued to work with her. Depending on the relationship between the mentor and mentee, the students may bond at a deeper level and truly have an impact on one another.

Anderson and Scarmardo find a bond with their mentees when it comes to sports. The kids love to talk to their mentors about football–Scarmardo said it makes them feel grown up.

Because of what he has in common with their mentees and seeing the positive effect of his mentoring,  Anderson said he finds the opportunity rewarding.

“The kids just make me smile,” Anderson said. “I kind of see myself in them.”