High school students are learning more than just English, math, and science these days — they’re helping to mold young lives.

Today, most high schools require students to complete community service hours each year. However, thanks to Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters (a beneficiary agency of The Jewish Federation), teens at Shalhevet School and Milken Community High School are meeting their community service obligation — and getting a great deal back in return.

For the last three semesters, Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters has been working closely with school administrators and counselors to match high school students with middle school children who might benefit from having a big brother or sister on campus. More than three dozen kids have participated in the new school-based mentoring program, and the time they invest in it far exceeds the required community service hours. “For the kids who are just doing regular community service, no matter how important the work is, everyone’s just like ‘I’m doing it for hours, gotta get my hours in,’” said Cary Kraft, a JBBBS big brother from Milken. “Normally you don’t feel really attached to your community service project, but when I was mentoring I felt like I was making a friend.”

The “bigs and littles,” as they are affectionately called, meet at least once a week to discuss classes, hobbies, friends, and family. Generally, the littles are selected to participate in the program based on poor grades or underdeveloped social skills; however that is not always the case. Most any child can benefit from this unique relationship. “There was one of our littles in the program whose parents were going through a divorce,” said Margy Feldman, JBBBS president and CEO. “Since the situation involved her mom and dad, she felt like she couldn’t talk to them about it. So, she talked with her big sister, and it helped.”

This fall, JBBBS’ school-based mentoring program will continue at Shalhavet and Milken. The agency also hopes to add new schools to the program soon. “For anyone who needs to do community service hours, this is a good way to learn about yourself and others,” Cary said. “It’s really great.”

This article originally appeared in the October 2006 issue of Mosaic.  For more information about Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters, please call (323) 761-8675 or visit www.jbbbsla.org.