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With only one week to fundraise during their annual conference in Santa Barbara, faculty and psychology students in the Psi Chi Chapter of Fielding Graduate University raised more than $1,500 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Santa Barbara County.

This is the second year in which the Psi Chi Chapter has raised money for Big Brothers Big Sisters. The Chapter selected Big Brothers Big Sisters as their designated service project primarily because members had clinical or personal experiences with the program’s results and wanted to support the emotional health and well-being of Santa Barbara County citizens.

“We’re proud that our faculty, students and administrators come to Santa Barbara from throughout the US and other countries and set aside time and resources for our local Big Brother Big Sister program,” said David Edelman, Vice President of Advancement and Development for Fielding.

Fielding Graduate University Psi Chi is a local chapter of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology, an honor society open to Fielding Psychology students with a 3.5 GPA or higher. Psi Chi’s mission includes the goal to “promote ethical and socially responsible members and leaders,” which they achieve through chapter service projects.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is recognized as the single most effective prevention-based mentoring program in the United States. At-risk children ages 6-15 are carefully matched with caring adult mentors, who help them reach their full potential trough one-to-one relationships built on trust, friendship, consistency, support, and guidance. In a recent national report titled The Mentoring Effect, it has been determined that young people who are mentored show improvements academically, socially, and economically. These types of improvements are a direct result of the investment in our most valuable resource, our community’s children, which will lead to stronger and safer communities.

Locally, Big Brothers Big Sisters is a program of Family Service Agency.