Dear Friends,
I am so thankful for all that Big Brothers Big Sisters does to offer Monmouth University students an opportunity to mentor Asbury Park High School students through the Project B.A.M. mentoring program. We just completed our 8th successful year of Project B.A.M. which was appropriately named by the first group of participating mentors and mentees representing the partnership between Big Brothers Big Sisters, Asbury Park High School, and Monmouth University.
Project B.A.M. enhances diversity on campus, and Monmouth University students who participate find that their involvement is one of the most transformative experiences of their college career. Students are able to make local and global connections by interacting with students from diverse cultural and socio-economic, racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well as immigrants, and this inspires them to become more giving and engaged citizens; they become better persons. Not all our students are able to travel abroad to volunteer with underprivileged students in India or Guatemala, but they learn about the same underlying currents of poverty and structural inequality that affect neighborhoods in our own backyards and the developing world; hence it advances their local-global experience.
Asbury Park High School students also indicate that through this program they are inspired to consider a college career, and are amazed at the opportunities MU has to offer. In addition, several APHS students give back by becoming mentors themselves to youngsters facing difficulty in the absence of role models in their lives.
Warm regards,
Rekha Datta
Rekha Datta
Monmouth University Professor & BBBS Trustee
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