The Colby Echo

Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: Courtesy of Ru Freeman 2006-07 CCAK mentors on Miller Steps

Media Credit: Courtesy of Ru Freeman T Ling U '08 with her mentee

Media Credit: Tori Starr The CCAK talent show

Colby Cares About Kids (CCAK), a volunteer mentoring program at the College, has expanded as a club this year. The program, which usually recruits fifty or fewer mentors each year, had around 180 new members this fall.

The program is young, having started only five years ago, and is still in the process of development. Due to the large increase in active members, Director of CCAK Ru Freeman expanded the program's Student Advisory Board. The Board consists of fourteen students who meet with Freeman weekly to discuss the program-what is going well and what could be improved.

Freeman noted that a huge number of athletes had joined CCAK this year. "I have found that athletes are really terrific mentors," she said. "They are used to the whole discipline of going and not missing a day and making sure to reschedule if they have a conflict."

Mentors meet for an hour twice a week with students in grades K-8 from sixteen different school sites in the surrounding area, with mentors who travel to schools as far as Vassalborough and Skowhegan. Students become mentors with the understanding that there is a three semester commitment. The goal of the program is to forge stable, solid relationships that are consistent, sustained and reliable. "That is what [the mentees] mostly lack in their lives, which is why the three semester commitment is such a big deal," Freeman said.

"Twice a week I get to go hang out with a sixth grader and play games like Uno or work on little crafts projects," Marissa Meyer '07, who sits on the advisory board and has been actively involved with the program since her freshman year, said. "She's my closest and strongest tie to the Waterville community and I can't overstate how much I value having that relationship."
"It is very rewarding to see the progress my mentee (Owen who is in 5th grade) has made in things we have worked on such as math, reading and even doing lay-ups in basketball," Mentor Bobby Rudolph '09 said. "CCAK also does a very good job at pairing mentees and mentors who have common interests."

Two main goals for CCAK this year have been to increase cohesiveness of the mentors and expand the program's presence on campus. "CCAK mentors are not only role models for the kids they mentor but role models for the Colby community," Freeman said. "We are trying to have more activities that engage other students on campus even if they are not CCAK mentors."

An example of such an event was the recent CCAK sponsored faculty and staff talent show that took place on Thursday April 5. The show was originally intended to be part of a fundraising event with mentors inviting their mentees to come onto the College campus. Logistically it was too complicated to organize such an event this year, as mentees need permission to be transported to campus. However, CCAK plans to have a similar event next year, with mentees getting the opportunity to visit the College.

"Students loved it," Freeman said of the talent show. "It was amazing to see how many Colby administrators participated, I was quite impressed."

The show included Assistant Professor of English Jennifer Thorn and her daughter singing, Director of Safety Bruce McDougal playing the guitar, Director of the Physical Plant Department Pat Murphy and her daughter dancing, Zacamy Professor of English Peter Harris reading poetry, and more. Freeman hopes the talent show will become an annual event, with even more faculty participating next year.

CCAK acquired two vans for transportation this year, an addition that has contributed to forging closer relationships between mentors who are able to get to know each other while traveling to and from their mentoring sites. The program also plans to hold activities for mentors that share the same site, such as pizza dinners.

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