Not everyone has to be a teacher to be able to help even just one student, which is what around 30 students at Liberty do as mentors in the VOICE program.
VOICE stands for Volunteers of Issaquah Changing Education and it’s a program that matches older students to elementary schoolers whose teachers think would benefit from having a mentor. It started in 2004 and has since then served over 2,500 students.
At Liberty, students are matched to Briarwood students by coordinator Dalaina LaMance and then work with their mentee weekly at Briarwood.
“I used to go to Briarwood and a bunch of older kids would come by, and they would read books with us and spend time with us,” Michael Chaikou, a sophomore and mentor said. “That really helped me, because I used to have very low self esteem back in elementary school.”
Since then, Chaikou felt the need to return the favor back to the school.
“I saw that there was a program for it, and so I signed up for it last May,” Chaikou said. “All my teachers there still knew me and they were like ‘yeah, we can definitely work with you’.”
However, any student can sign up to be a VOICE mentor, even if they don’t have experience working with kids.
“I’ve been mentoring since the beginning of March,” Keira McBride, a sophomore and new mentor said. “But before this I hadn’t really worked with kids.”
McBride learned about the program from an Honor Society meeting where LaMance introduced it to students.
“I felt like I would get something out of it and I could also help someone,” McBride said.
Working with a kid one-on-one helps out elementary students individually but it’s also an opportunity for mentors to grow.
“I had worked with kids last summer doing an ice skating camp, so I figured that it would be fun to get to work one-on-one with a kid,” Tayla Chin, a freshman and first year mentor said. “It was nice to try both.”
To support their mentees, student VOICE mentors meet with them for around 45 minutes and essentially act as an older friend to them.
“I’m currently working with a fifth grader,” Chaikou said. “I take him out of his classroom and talk with him, walk with him, play games, and just spend time with him.
As “older kids,” VOICE mentors can help elementary students with concerns they have about school.
“Sometimes he asks me what middle school was like, because he’s really concerned about homework and how he’s going to succeed,” Chaikou said. “I would sit down with him and I would just talk with him.”
During their hangout time, mentors can play games with their students, which helps them build connections while having fun.
“[My mentee] is really energetic. He’s in first grade, and what is really amazing to me is his imagination – it’s crazy,” McBride said. “I go there every Wednesday, and he picks out a game to play, but it’s usually not how you’re supposed to play. It’s so funny because he’ll just make up his own rules.”
“We played with Play Doh and he wanted to pretend that we were archeologists digging for artifacts in the Play Doh,” McBride said. “It’s just really amazing how he’s able to come up with scenarios and games to play.”
Through spending time with young kids, older mentors get the chance to learn more about them and learn how to talk to kids.
“I find it really good for myself because I get to see how kids think and how they perceive the world,” Chin said. “And it was nice to be able to develop my communication skills to all demographics.”
Additionally, putting in effort towards a singular kid allows them to receive help and support that they may not have gotten otherwise.
“I’ve learned a lot about my mentee,” Chin said. “They’re really smart, extremely creative, and really caring.”
For elementary students, having a mentor can serve as both a fun hangout, but also as a safe space.
“If they have stuff happening at home, if they’re in stressful situations and they kind of want to get away from it, then having a person there helps them out so much,” Chaikou said.
Elementary students get someone they can rely on, and highschoolers get the chance to learn about someone new.
“Teachers tell me that their students look forward to the days they get to meet with their mentors,” LaMance said. “It makes them feel special.”
Just putting in those 45 minutes a week can mean a lot for students at a young age.
“One of the best things I learned is that there are so many smart elementary school kids that you wouldn’t normally know about or get to see under the normal school light,” Chaikou said. “But if you’re present in the elementary schools and you get to talk to them – even just a quick conversation – you can understand so much more about them.”
It may seem like a small thing, but having an older buddy makes a lasting impression on both mentor and mentee.
“They can really learn from how we behave and how we act towards them and others,” Chin said.
“You start to get a hope about the future and think ‘okay, maybe the future isn’t so bad,” Chaikou said. “We got so many of these kids that know very much about stuff and they’re very enthusiastic. I’m just really excited for that and I’m happy to be part of it.”
In the future, LaMance and the VOICE mentors have hopes to expand the program to include more highschool mentors.
“There’s so many kids in elementary schools, so if we can get as many highschoolers involved as possible in the program that would be really, really awesome,” Chaikou said. “If there was at least one person in their life that they could look up to and think ‘I want to be like this person’, then they could benefit greatly.”
