BMOS Volunteer Opportunities
This piece that talks about how people can get engaged with the 100 as a volunteer. We have three different programs right now where we have partners from the corporate community, from foundations, parents, teachers, educators, and just folks who are looking to make a difference in the community come together and join with us to help kids that range from elementary school through those going to college. Those are our TMI Robotics where we build robots out of Legos, our youth golf program, and our youth tennis program, which we call the Stanford Youth Tennis Academy.
The kinds of roles that people play are they can act as [inaudible 00:00:47] for coaches where it’s really not about having engineering skill but it’s about the willingness to sit down with kids and help give them some general idea of how to work within the general parameters and rules of the program. It’s really stepping out of the way and letting the kids do it. Because it’s all about the experience, it’s not about winning or losing. It’s really a chance for anybody who has a couple hours … We typically meet for most of these programs a couple hours a week Saturday mornings, Wednesday afternoons so we can take people who have time after school, have time on the weekends.
If you’re just looking to make a difference in kids’ lives, our population tends to be more kids of color who oftentimes are coming from single family parents. You provide a strong role model. Particularly we look for males but we take everybody in all fashions. You just want to have a chance to see what the new world is like, because dealing with people who are 14 to 16 is a unique experience that gives you a much better representation to bring ideas where they’re not constrained. They are willing to try anything and they’re willing to a large extent still listen before they get to that high school stage. If you’re thinking you have a heart to be able to reach out and to make that difference in a kid’s life, and you have just a little bit of time, because we can find a role for you no matter how much time you have. It’s great if you can bring money but that’s not it; it’s really your time that’s a special treasure, and that’s what we’re looking for.
