BATON ROUGE — Big Buddy teamed up with LSU Athletics on Friday for the organization’s 11th-annual Day of a Mentor, allowing members of the Big Buddy program to shadow LSU student-athletes in their daily campus activities.
Students-athletes and coaches from the men’s basketball, football, soccer, softball and volleyball teams participated in the event along with members of the academic center and CHAMPS.
In the morning, the student-athletes met their Little Buddies at the Catholic Life Center before setting off to tour the LSU campus. The Little Buddies and their mentors visited Mike the Tiger’s habitat and also toured Tiger Stadium to get an up-close look at where some of their mentors compete.
“It is different because I take for granted the things I see every day,” football’s Austin Kinchen said. “All the little things are the things my Little Buddy appreciates. I just like being able to see the smile on his face.”
Big Buddy established the “Day of a Mentor” in 1998 to bring awareness to the service of mentoring and to motivate members of the community to become involved and make a difference in the life of a child.
The student-athletes participated in the “Day of a Mentor” program in conjunction with the Shaquille O’Neal CHAMPS/Life Skills program. The CHAMPS (Challenging Athletes Minds for Personal Success)/Life Skills Program was designed by the NCAA to help student-athletes realize higher academic achievement, increase likelihood of graduation and enter a chosen profession with a higher level of vision, knowledge, motivation, self-responsibility and greater overall success.