Undergraduate Service Learning Opportunity in Local Elementary Schools

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The Center for Research on Aggression and Victimization (CRAV) run by Timothy Cavell is currently recruiting lunch buddy mentors for the Fall 2022 semester!

For more than a decade, our team has worked collaboratively with local schools, mainly in Springdale, but also in Fayetteville, though more limited. Our work explores how to identify and support elementary school students who are chronically bullied. These students are at risk for a host of negative outcomes as they transition into middle school. 

Our team is best known for providing schools with Lunch Buddy mentors. 

Lunch Buddy mentors are U of A students paired with a student identified as being bullied at school. Mentors visit the school twice a week and sit with their mentee at the school lunch table. U of A student mentors are enrolled in a credit-bearing Service Learning course and all go through an interview and background check like that used by Big Brothers Big Sisters. They are also trained to foster positive attitudes toward the mentee and to promote lunchtime peer interactions that are safe, harmonious and fun. 

Lunch Buddy mentoring is consistently viewed as a safe and popular way to support this group of students. We also find evidence that Lunch Buddy mentoring can benefit chronically bullied students. 

We are recruiting Lunch Buddy mentors on a rolling basis, so apply now!