Vereniz Magana (left) and Amelia Aparicio

Story By Vereniz Magana and Amelia Aparicio

The month of January is "National Mentoring Month" and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ventura County (BBBS) will be celebrating Fillmore/Piru Big Brothers Big Sisters Program by highlighting one of the 54 local adult community volunteer mentor matches. A community mentoring match is the partnering between a local community member and a student. The community volunteer meets on an average of once a week with a youth to encourage, offer some different experiences and listen. A mentor is an unconditional friend.

The Fillmore/Piru program is unique in that the match is usually made when the youth is in middle school or high school and continues until the youth is 21 in order to help in those difficult adolescent years and through the most challenging transitions from middle school to high school as well as from high school to college or a career.

The mentor highlighted this month is between Vereniz Magana (mentee) and Amelia Aparicio (mentor). They have been matched for over three years. Amelia was inspired to become a mentor because she wanted a youth to have a positive experience outside of their family household. Amelia met with Vereniz at least once a week and the relationship developed into a strong friendship.

Three years later, Amelia realizes that she benefited as much as she gave. By connecting with a youth from the community she has developed a stronger sense of belonging and she enjoys the opportunity to give back to her community. Amelia's most memorable moment was when her mentee decided to drive beside her during her 100 mile bicycle ride, giving her support and encouragement. Amelia finds mentoring so rewarding that she now has three mentees and has discovered that each mentee brings a different richness into her life.
Vereniz joined the program because, being the oldest of six children, she always wondered what it would be like to have an older sister. Amelia has exposed her to many new positive experiences and she has found an artistic ability that she didn’t know she had. She feels that Amelia has helped her become more self-confident.

Amelia has continued mentoring Vereniz as she attends Ventura College and is so proud of her accomplishments! She has made the Deans list four times and has a GPA of 4.0. Vereniz currently interns for a local dentist and plans to become a dentist herself.

Vereniz's advice for today’s youth is that “kids should take advantage of positive role models! If they don't have a positive role model, they should sign up for a mentor through the mentor program.”

If you are interested in knowing more about the community mentoring program in both Fillmore and Piru, please contact Brandy at (805) 910-9982 for more information.