Once a week during a semester’s duration, Colorado State University students come together to serve local youth facing difficulties through the university’s Campus Connections Therapeutic Youth Mentoring program.
“Campus Connections is both a service learning class for students and a community outreach program serving youth in the community who have experienced adversity,” said Jen Krafchick, Campus Connections director and professor of human development and family studies.
Enrolled students are able to earn three credits through HDFS 470, but the program is open and encourages applicants from all majors. The first three weeks of the course’s semester are focused on training undergraduates in skills critical to best assist the youth they will mentor.
“Trauma-informed mentoring really just looks at the way that you know adversity or traumatic experiences can show up in people,” Krafchick said. “So (it’s) understanding that trauma might impact them in certain ways and being more sensitive and accommodating to that type of experience.”
The course runs once a week from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Gifford Building, where the first hour is reserved for undergraduates to review required readings and their application to their mentees. Olivia Katsirubas, mentor coach and human development and family studies student, described a recent example.
“We have assigned readings and a blog that students will do, and this is just to help us kind of get some training,” Katsirubas said. “So for example, this past week was about LGBTQ youth and racial minorities and how to kind of approach topics or … implicit biases that we might have around those (topics).”
The program assists Northern Colorado youth who have been recommended to the program for a variety of reasons.
“Youth in our program are referenced from the juvenile system (and) from school counselors,” Katsirubas said. “It could just be that their parents wanted to sign up for it, kind of any use that they can get out of it, and we help them to provide some peer support, academic support and therapeutic support.”
“(Kids have) improved school attendance, decreased substance use, reduction in behavioral problems, both at home and at school, and then also enhanced well-being. And so that really takes out three primary variables, that after kids participate in campus connections, they are happier, they feel less lonely and they feel like they matter more.” –Jen Krafchick, Campus Connections director
Once the youth arrive, mentors pair off with their kids for walk and talk, where pairs walk around campus and discuss recent updates in the kids’ lives. The following hour is reserved for the supporting school success session, where undergraduates support kids in their academic work.
“So that is individualized, one-on-one attention from their mentor to help them with anything academic,” Krafchick said. “It might be helping them with homework, studying for exams, writing a paper or, if they really don’t have homework, it might look like helping them explore different career options or post-secondary education.”
The kids are then provided with a free, hot meal by the Food Bank of Larimer County, wherein everyone participates in a family-style dinner.
The next two hours are spent on prosocial activities led by the undergraduate students. Activities include sports, arts and crafts, a variety of board games and outdoor events.
Undergraduates who complete several semesters of the course serve as mentor coaches, offering support to other mentors. HDFS graduate students specializing in marriage and family therapy are also present throughout the program to offer critical care when needed.
“If the youth shares something that you know is more serious or significant, like they’re struggling with their mental health or they’re not safe at home or they’re engaging in some sort of dangerous activities, then we … have a system that connects them with the therapist who’s here the whole night,” Krafchick said.
As kids participate in the program, the growth and progress they achieve is undeniable.
“(Kids have) improved school attendance, decreased substance use, reduction in behavioral problems, both at home and at school, and then also enhanced well-being,” Krafchick said. “And so that really takes out three primary variables, that after kids participate in campus connections, they are happier, they feel less lonely and they feel like they matter more.”
These positive effects are also reflected back onto the undergraduate students.
“Students who participate in Campus Connections have higher persistence and graduation rates,” Krafchick said. “They have higher GPAs. They complete their degree faster. They have increased meaning and improved flourishing in their own personal lives.”
As the semester concludes, kids who completed the program are invited to participate in a graduation ceremony — a moment that holds special emphasis for their mentors.
“The two semesters I have been a part of graduation, there’s tears with all the kiddos.” Katsirubas. “(It’s) a very bittersweet moment of like, it’s coming to an end, but these kids have grown so much they also have to feel the impact. That’s my favorite thing.”
The hands-on experiences offered to undergraduates have influenced many students’ future career paths, including psychology student Nadia Coke’s.
“I started out, like, thinking I wanted to go into therapy, but I wasn’t sure,” Coke said. “And then now that I have this experience, it kind of solidified that for me.”
Applications for the upcoming semester are still open.
“This program offers so much,” Katsirubas said. “And no matter what it is, whether you’re trying to gain leadership skills, mentoring skills, experience with kids or just (trying) something different, there’s something for everyone.”
Reach Katie Fisher at science@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.
