Big Sibs reincarnated into campus-wide effort
After the Big Sibs community service project initiated by the Class of 2016 was cancelled last year, Big Sibs is back and now accepting applications from the current freshman, sophomore and junior classes. Now called Community House Big Sibs, the program is a revamped version of the Big Sibs project of the Class of 2016 and pairs University students with elementary school students one-on-one to engage in long-term mentorship relationships. Class of 2016 president Justin Ziegler ’16 said that the original project, which involved around 300 students, lasted a year and a half and was terminated last spring when the partner school was shut down by New Jersey’s Department of Education. The partner school, City Invincible Charter School, was an elementary school located in Camden, N.J. Ziegler said that as soon as he found out that City Invincible Charter School was closing, he and Big Sibs Board co-chair Sofia Gomez ’16 started looking for options to continue the project. “I saw first hand how well it worked last year and how people were really excited about it, and we had a positive impact,” Gomez said.