I read in today's Philadelphia Inquirer that the regional Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter are looking for more men to be mentors to young boys (see "Big Brothers seeking more than a few good men"). It seems that only 3 in every 10 mentors in this organization are men.[This photo, which accompanied the article, is of Blair Shaw of West Philadelphia, who became a Big Brother six months ago.]
This caught my attention for two reasons: (1) the goal of this blog is similar to that of Big Brother: find mentors that young people can look to for guidance and help, and (2) maybe there's a way for us to help Big Brother find men and for Big Brother to help us find kids.
Speaking to #2, here's my idea: perhaps the Philly Big Brother/Big Sister organization and Life Science Profiles of Color (LSPOC) can work together. The latter has connections with children in schools and LSPOC has connections to people of color within the pharmaceutical industry. Perhaps we can bring the two together?
One way to do this is to have kids "interview" pharma people of color about how they came to work for the drug industry. This may elicit more interesting and inspiring stories than do the questions we ask in our questionnaire, which you can find here.
I've spoken to Craig DeLarge and Fard Johnmar, my partners here on LSPOC blog, about reaching out to students this way, and maybe we can get connected to Big Brother/Big Sister to help us and help them at the same time.
Before going off on that tangent, however, it would be helpful if any readers of this blog submitted comments on this idea. Thanks for your input!
