Any premeds or med students been Big Brothers/Big Sisters?

[j4premed]

I have recently become very interested in being a Big Sister and am wondering what others' experiences have been like being in the program.

I'm in my third year of undergrad, but plan on 2 more years. As far as volunteering goes I have yet to do anything significant and I'm considering an opportunity such as this to be a good start. I don't have much experience with children and perhaps this opportunity would provide just that--and to get me out of my shell (I've always been on the shy/quiet side).

So have any of you been a Big?

(I did a search and didn't find results geared toward premeds and meds)

Thanks in advance for feedback 🙂

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[J ROD]

tried and got rejected....😳

 

[Rach83]

I've been doing it for about a year and a half. It's definitely time-consuming and my local agency requires that you do it for at least 18 months. Not sure if the 18 month thing is the same everywhere.

I do think it would help you come out of shell since your "little" will likely be more shy than you are, so you'd have to make an effort to make him/her feel comfortable. For me, I feel like I have to be a good example when we're out in the community. It forces me to be friendly and chatty with random people so that my Little can see how easy it is (she's very shy with strangers). It is a great way to make a big impact with volunteering, at least when compared to some other volunteer opportunities that can seem useless.

PM me if you'd like. I think you should go for it if you have the time. 🙂

 

[j4premed]

I've been doing it for about a year and a half. It's definitely time-consuming and my local agency requires that you do it for at least 18 months. Not sure if the 18 month thing is the same everywhere.

I do think it would help you come out of shell since your "little" will likely be more shy than you are, so you'd have to make an effort to make him/her feel comfortable. For me, I feel like I have to be a good example when we're out in the community. It forces me to be friendly and chatty with random people so that my Little can see how easy it is (she's very shy with strangers). It is a great way to make a big impact with volunteering, at least when compared to some other volunteer opportunities that can seem useless.

PM me if you'd like. I think you should go for it if you have the time. 🙂

Yeah, I'm definately going to look into it more. Time shouldn't be much of an issue, long term, because I don't plan on moving anywhere... Like you stated, it seems like it will make a big impact. I'd rather do meaningful and worthwhile volunteer work than just pad my app.

Thank you for your reply!

 

[dani042]

I was a big sis. I enjoyed it and I'm pretty sure my little bro did as well. I felt bad having to move away to start school.

 

[J ROD]

I was a big sis. I enjoyed it and I'm pretty sure my little bro did as well.

sounds dirty.....

 

[Rach83]

I was a big sis. I enjoyed it and I'm pretty sure my little bro did as well. I felt bad having to move away to start school.

Wait, they allowed you to mentor a boy? Strict no-no at my agency....

 

[GoBriightly]

I'm a big too!
I absolutely love it, but do know that it is very time consuming. Like Rach83, my agency requires an 18 month commitment and that I meet with my little at least once a week.
also, some agencies do allow big sisters to mentor little boys (like elementary school age or younger). I have friends who have very young boys as their littles!

 

[QofQuimica]

Wait, they allowed you to mentor a boy? Strict no-no at my agency....

I guess it's agency-dependent, because I mentored two children, and the second one was a boy. I think a female Big working with a male Little is probably tolerated in some cases since there are relatively few male mentors. At any rate, I've never heard of a male Big working with a female Little, but I know of other female Bigs who mentored male Littles.

OP, if you decide to become a Big (very rewarding experience, BTW), the best advice I can give you is to think ahead of time about what kind of time commitment you can give to mentoring your Little. I think the worst mistake that new mentors can make is to start out all gung-ho spending lots of time with their child, and then after a few weeks or months barely seeing them anymore. If you set up that expectation that you're going to hang out with them a certain amount of time, they will not take it well when your attention falls off. You're better off spending less time with them initially and then seeing more of them later if you find that you can handle it in terms of your schedule.

As for how it will affect you--well, all I can tell you is that the kids have an unpredictable effect on your life. Some of it is the deeper character stuff that comes from trying to act as a role model. Some of it is the unexpected situations you find yourself in. I wound up being invited to do science demonstrations at my first Little's school after I made her a liquid nitrogen ice cream birthday party. She was definitely popular with her classmates after that party; even kids from other classes were talking about it the next day.

 

[doopdidoop]

I guess it's agency-dependent, because I mentored two children, and the second one was a boy. I think a female Big working with a male Little is probably tolerated in some cases since there are relatively few male mentors. At any rate, I've never heard of a male Big working with a female Little, but I know of other female Bigs who mentored male Littles.

OP, if you decide to become a Big (very rewarding experience, BTW), the best advice I can give you is to think ahead of time about what kind of time commitment you can give to mentoring your Little. I think the worst mistake that new mentors can make is to start out all gung-ho spending lots of time with their child, and then after a few weeks or months barely seeing them anymore. If you set up that expectation that you're going to hang out with them a certain amount of time, they will not take it well when your attention falls off. You're better off spending less time with them initially and then seeing more of them later if you find that you can handle it in terms of your schedule.

As for how it will affect you--well, all I can tell you is that the kids have an unpredictable effect on your life. Some of it is the deeper character stuff that comes from trying to act as a role model. Some of it is the unexpected situations you find yourself in. I wound up being invited to do science demonstrations at my first Little's school after I made her a liquid nitrogen ice cream birthday party. She was definitely popular with her classmates after that party; even kids from other classes were talking about it the next day.

I totally agree with this. When I was in middle school, my Big was really available and we hung out a lot, she took me to museums and out to eat, and then she basically stopped contact with me. My mom said I took it pretty hard because I was new to the school and to the city, so it does have a big effect on the kids even though it doesn't have a big effect on you. So be careful in your commitment! Although I haven't worked through Big Brother/Big Sister, I did do this through a school organization and I agree that it's super rewarding. Just make sure you have the time for it...I didn't realize how time consuming it was and had to back out of another activity so I could make time for our weekly get-togethers. This is a great thing to do, you don't realize how much of an effect you can make on younger kids!

 

[Morsetlis]

Definitely something to talk about if you can do it long-term.