Sidekicks

Sidekicks is a mentoring program that pairs students from Hamilton College with children from Clinton Elementary School. Pairs meet for about an hour each week and coordinate meet-ups based on each person's availability.

 

Volunteers spend time with Clinton Elementary schoolers that they have been paired with doing a variety of things. It is up to the volunteers to choose when to meet with their sidekicks and what they wish to do with that time. However, volunteers are encouraged to pick activities that they and their sidekicks have in common, as their commonalities are the basis for the matchings.

SideKicks is a program that serves both the Hamilton and Clinton communities by creating bonds between Hamilton students and the children of the town of Clinton. Pairs can spend time at Hamilton’s campus in areas like the glen, or they can explore Clinton and the surrounding area with their SideKicks’ families.

The main benefit of SideKicks is the well-being it brings to all volunteers and their elementary school sidekicks. College students need the time and space to step back from their busy lives and experience the world around them as more than just work and stress. The children of Clinton are able to experience Hamilton not as an elite idea at the top of a hill, but as a community of passionate young adults who care about the people in the larger community. Besides uniting the college and town, this program provides mentors and role models for young children at the beginning of their social lives.

Hours are completely flexible and based on the schedule of the people in the partnership!

For more information please contact:

cqueally@hamilton.edu (Cally Queally); lkilburn@hamilton.edu (Lantz Kilburn)