ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Minnesota kicked off 2023 by announcing that, after seven years, the agency’s Dr. Potter Bigs on Campus Initiative was expanding to a second location. Less than six months later, the initiative is expanding once again.
Starting in the Fall 2023 semester, BBBS of Central Minnesota will start pairing students from the Sauk Rapids-Rice School District with faculty, staff, and local business professionals at St. Cloud Technical & Community College. The Bigs on Campus initiative at SCTCC joins the pilot program at St. Cloud State University, which was started in the 2016-17 school year, and the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University initiative, which paired matches for the first time in January.
Through the new initiative, high school students from Sauk Rapids-Rice will be bussed to SCTCC twice a month to meet with their mentors for group activities, tours of the campus, and one-to-one mentoring to help the students with homework, resume building, or just hanging out.
“The collaboration between Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Minnesota, the Sauk Rapids-Rice School District, and St. Cloud Technical & Community College provides an outstanding opportunity to enrich the lives of children while enhancing and strengthening collaborative community relationships in the St. Cloud region,” SCTCC President Lori Kloos said. “I am excited about this partnership and look forward to seeing the positive impact of relationships developed and lives enriched through this program.”
As part of the partnership, BBBS and St. Cloud Tech & Community College are teaming up to recruit faculty and staff members, as well as local business professionals, to serve as Bigs (mentors) to the students. They will meet twice a month over the lunch hour as part of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Minnesota’s initiative to introduce more local youth to life on a college campus to help prepare them for their futures.
Anyone interested in becoming a Big through the Bigs on Campus program can email Emmitt@BigDefenders.org or visit www.BigDefenders.org/Ways for more information.