Volume 124 Issue 71
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Friday, December 2, 2011
It's so thumb-believable
PAGE 5
Men's basketball preview for Sat.
FINALS
FEATURE
park, I ignore the fact that I'm 20 and instead focus on how high I can swing. During our girls' nights when we make s'mores and watch chick flicks, I'm unconcerned with the number of calories I'm consuming and am instead engrossed in Sina's latest sixth-grade gossip.
As any Big can tell you, volunteering with the organization comes with its ups and downs. The time commitment can be a problem for some volunteers, but giving to the Lawrence community in a way that transports you back to childhood is a definite plus. Brashler describes volunteering with the organization as a "feel-good" activity. She's seen matches grow and Littles open up to their Bigs about their lives. "You do get the impression that you begin to matter to this person," she says. "They look forward to seeing you, they look up to you and they begin talking to you about things that they wouldn't talk to their parents about."
A strong match can benefit the child. Every year, the organization surveys the children and their parents to better understanding how the match has affected the child, Brashler says, and 50 to 75 percent of the time, Littles have grown from the experience. Their personalities have developed, their communication skills have improved and they have better self-confidence. For the children with Bigs in Schools, their teachers are surveyed, and they say they have often seen an improvement in the child's grades as well as attitudes, and overall, the kids relate better to their teachers and peers.
Emily Lubarsky, a junior from Shawnee, has been a Big with Bigs in Schools for a year and a half. Each week, she meets her Little, Haylee, at school where the two play kickball, make crafts or their personal favorite, paint pictures. When Haylee switched elementary schools last year, Lubarsky moved with her, easing the transition to a new school and proving that she would be a constant figure. For that reason, she is now comfortable enough to ask for advice when it comes to school or friendship problems. "Some of these kids have so much craziness in their lives," Lubarsky says. "This is just a way to give them one steady thing that's going to happen every day."
Similarly, Kelsey Nelson, a junior from Springfield, III., has seen her community-based match progress. When the two were matched one year ago, her 6-year-old Little, Aliyah, was so shy that she wouldn't even look Nelson in the eye. Figuring out activities was a guessing game for Nelson, who at times questioned whether or not Aliyah was having fun. "Now, if we're in the middle of doing an activity and
she's not having fun, she's like 'I'm bored; I want to go," Nelson says. "She feels totally comfortable."
Comfort in a match is ideal, but there are times when that comfort poses an obstacle for the Big. Hilary Collert is a junior from Oklahoma City who has been matched with 14-year-old Senia for almost a year and a half. When applying for the community-based program, Collert requested an older Little because she wanted someone old enough to come to her for advice. But when Senia asked her about dating, Collert found herself searching for the right words. "I didn't really know how to respond to that because my parents were strict about me dating." Collert says. "A lot of the kids I grew up with were dating at 13 or 14, but I wasn't allowed to talk to boys until I was 16. I just tried to tell her my experience and let her decide from there what she wanted."
The time commitment can be another challenge. Brasher says that volunteers will often be eager to apply for the community-based program, but after a couple of months, they realize that it is a bigger time commitment than they anticipated. For this reason, college volunteers are encouraged to start off with Bigs in Schools. There is a set schedule and it requires a maximum of one hour per week.
Luke Noll, a senior from Nortonville, says the time commitment of the community-based program is worth it. His little brother, Don'na, is a 6-year-old with excellent manners, an inquisitive mind and a passion for learning. The two like to hang out at parks, have been fishing and swimming, and have even made a trip to the Topeka Zoo. "Sometimes, it's hard for me to get up and go across town and say, 'I'm going to hang out with a 6-year-old,' he says. "But the second he gets in the truck, I get excited. You think you don't have time for this, but when those two hours are over, you're glad you did this."
Surprisingly, Brashler says that the agency sees few behavioral problems within matches, despite the wide range of ages of Little. Typically, she says, the kids are so excited to have someone to spend time with that they don't want to do anything to disappoint or disobey their Bigs.
But volunteers should remember that the kids are still kids. Ethan Hrabe, a junior from Olathe, has been matched with his 6-year-old little, Antonio, for five months. Although he's not a difficult child, Antonio will at times become upset about his 6-year-old problems. Rather than disciplining him, though, Hrabe will let him have his moment. "You have to remember that
he's still a little boy," Hrabe says. "You just have to roll with it and as an adult, understand that they're going to deal with it how they're going to deal with it."
Although the majority of the children don't have behavioral problems, during the lengthy interview process, volunteers specify what conditions they feel comfortable working with. After attending an orientation session, volunteers fill out an application where they share their own interests and state who they're comfortable with, whether that be a handicapped child, an abused child, a child with learning disabilities, etc.
After that, volunteers are brought in for an interview to give the caseworkers a better sense of who they are. Four references are required for the community-based program and three for Bigs in Schools. Five different background checks are performed and your driving record is examined. For community-based Bigs, a caseworker then comes to your home to make sure it's a safe environment and administers a second interview. This interview consists of a series of hypothetical questions to see how you would react if placed in a problematic situation with your Little.
After the interviews and background checks, your file is given to a team of volunteers with experience in mental health, child services and law enforcement for one final examination. Once approved, the agency finds files of compatible Littles for you to pore through and determine your best match.
After I was approved, I went in to see that my caseworker had extracted three files of potential Little Sisters for me to look through. The first two girls seemed great, but it was the last profile that caught my eye. Her name was Sina. She was 10-years-old and had been Big Sisterless for a while. She was quiet but funny, and we had a lot of the same interests.
Perhaps reading too far into the signs, I excitedly noted that our dads shared the same name and that one of my elementary school best friends was named Sina. Without any hesitation, I told my caseworker that I would love to have Sina has a Little. Sixteen months and an inseparable bond later, I know that I made the right choice.
Bigs on Campus
This school year marked the birth of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Student Club. The club gives Big Brothers Big Sisters' 150 student volunteers a place to meet, share their experiences and brainstorm group activities for the 'club members' Little Brothers and Sisters.
"There's not really that much of an involvement between the Bigs, and we just wanted a way to interact with each other," says two-year Big Sister Sarah Hutton, a junior from Colorado Springs and the club's activities chair.
So far, the club, which meets once a month, has organized a campus scavenger hunt and a trip to a pumpkin patch for members. Littles. The group plans to attend Lawrence's Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade on Saturday.
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CAMPUS
Student Senate provides funding for Occupy KU group
IAN CUMMINGS
icummings@kansan.com
Occupy KU secured $200 in funding from the Student Senate Wednesday night after offering assurances that they will not start a riot or large-scale disturbance on campus.
The group is required, according to Senate funding rules, to use the money to buy office supplies or paper and printing.
Brian Sultana, a senior from Manhattan, sponsored the bill as a student senator for the School of Social Welfare. He said the group wants to get students involved in issues including student debt and University contracts with multinational corporations.
"The issues are many," Sultana said. "But the goal right now is to get that information out and get students talking about it."
Sultana has been involved in the Occupy KU group from the beginning, he said. One issue the group
is talking about is the University's exclusive contract with Ceca-Cola. Sultana said Occupy KU members are discussing accusations of environmental abuses, union busting and even murder at the cola company's overseas bottling plants. That same issue has been raised by the New York Times, Businessweek and the PBS program Frontline since 2005.
Occupy KU meets each Tuesday at noon and 4 p.m. and each Friday at 4 p.m. on the 4th floor of the Kansas
Union. The group is making plans to start tabling in the first week of the spring semester as part of an effort to attract more students. Sultana said the group now counts around 15 regular members. The group's Facebook profile has 60 members.
Hannah Bolton, senate chief of staff, said some senators did have concerns about approving funding for Occupy KU.
"We were kind of questioning their validity as a group." Bolton said.
Index
But the group met Student Senate requirements of being open to all students, which entitled it to $200 for office supplies and a banner just like any registered student group. Bolton said senate is not able to discriminate against any group that applies for funding and meets those requirements.
CLASSIFIEDS 11
CROSSWORD 4
CRYPTOQUIPS 4
OPINION 5
"They assured the senators that they are not planning any takeover on campus." Bolton said.
Edited by Josh Kantor
SPORTS 12
SUDOKU 4
Occupy KU on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/
groups/295517317094233/
OCCUPY ONLINE
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2011 The University Daily Kansan
Occupy KU meets each Tuesday at noon and 4 p.m. and each Friday at 4 p.m. on the 4th floor of the Kansas Union.
Occupy KU on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#1/occupyku
There is a men's basketball game on Saturday at 4:15 p.m.
Today's Weather
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