Each Monday afternoon throughout the school year, a small group of children ride the bus to the Radford University campus. They arrive from the city’s elementary schools, McHarg and Belle Heth, after their school day has ended.
Waiting for them at the bus loop is an enthusiastic group of Radford students, eager to spend a couple of hours with them, engaging in one-on-one conversations, playing games and just having fun together.
These weekly campus visits are part of Radford University’s chapter of the College Mentors for Kids program, which aims to transform the lives of children – and the university students who volunteer for the program – through weekly mentoring and activities. Radford started its chapter in 2016.
“It’s an opportunity for both Radford students and our little buddies – that’s what we call the elementary school kids – to grow as people,” said Marissa Cardoza, president of the university’s chapter of College Mentors for Kids. “This program gives the school kids a chance to connect with a mentor and helps them realize there is a lot out there for them when they get older.”
During those Monday meetings on the first floor of Heth, Radford students fully engage with their little buddies, talking, playing games and teaching them an assortment of skills through fun lessons and activities.
This past year, the little buddies made robots from recycled materials, acted out skits with their mentors using skills they learned from faculty in the Department of Theatre and Cinema and took in a show at the Radford University Planetarium.
They’ve also picked up some useful business lessons by selling lemonade on campus.
“They’ll go up to the college students and say, ‘We need your money,’ and it works every time,’” Cardoza said, laughing. “The kids love it.”
Parents of the little buddies love the program.
“It warms your heart to hear parents talk about College Mentors,” said Cardoza, a junior nursing major from Williamsburg, Virginia. “A mom of one of our little buddies came up to us and talked about how her daughter has grown so much through the program. It’s so nice to see the kids grow, and it’s nice seeing the parents watch their kids grow.”
The impact Radford mentors have on their little buddies is “truly moving,” one parent said.
“Their support, encouragement and kindness toward the Radford City Public Schools students are evident and deeply appreciated by both the kids and their families,” said Fallon Kreye, a procurement specialist in the university’s Department of Procurement and Contracts.
Typically, the College Mentors for Kids program is open only to students attending Radford City schools. However, there are exceptions for Radford employees and others who can provide transportation for their children to the program. “That’s something I am grateful for,” Kreye said.
About 25 Radford University students volunteered for the program during the 2024-25 academic year. Cardoza hopes to grow that number to 30 for the upcoming year.
Having an opportunity to make a positive impact on the lives of children is one reason she joined the College Mentors Program as a freshman. And she feels it’s one reason many other Radford students chose to devote their time to the program.
“It’s great to know we can do so much for those kids,” Cardoza said.
Radford alumna and current graduate student Mary Paniagua-Ugarte ’24 joined the program as a freshman. Like Cardoza, she held various positions – president, vice president of fundraising and social media manager – during her time volunteering in the chapter. Paniagua-Ugarte recalls working with a little buddy post-COVID who “would not talk at all,” she said when he first started in the program.
“Kids had been on Zoom for two years, and he did not want to socialize,” said Paniagua-Ugarte of Riner, Virginia, who is now enrolled in Radford’s Master of Science in Strategic Communications program. “But by the end of the school year and after working with a Radford student mentor, he was talking to everybody. We saw such amazing growth in him. His mom was so happy, and she said the program had helped him with his schoolwork.
“I think that’s what resonates with me about the program,” she continued. “It has such a positive impact on those kids at such a young age.”
At the end of each school year, Radford student mentors host a party for the little buddies and their parents and guardians. This year, the kids celebrated by waving glow sticks in a room of black lights while devouring cupcakes.
“They loved it,” Cardoza said about the children.
“There were tears from both the mentors and parents,” Kreye recalled, “a testament to how meaningful these relationships have become.”