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Scholarship Winner 2010 - Brooks Thorson
DSU student named as mentor scholarship winner
DICKINSON, N.D. – The Best Friends Mentoring Program announces that Brooks Thorson, a Dickinson State University student and Trinity High School graduate has been selected to receive the seventh annual scholarship awarded to a volunteer in the program.
While a junior at THS, Brooks signed up to share some of his free time mentoring an elementary school boy once a week for the school year. He continued as a mentor as high school senior, juggled a full load of classes while participating in student council, basketball, football and many other activities. As a DSU freshman, Brooks continued to be a mentor while participating in the Theodore Roosevelt Honors Program and his many school-related events.
“I enjoy being with younger kids and I loved grade school,” Brooks said. “It’s almost live re-living those days again. But I know things can happen and I wanted to help a child out” to resist negative peer pressure.
Program Coordinator Kim Dockter said Brooks has a calming influence and his consistency in showing up every week at the child’s school has had a big impact on both his Junior Friend and the student’s entire class.
Brooks spent one lunch hour each week more than two years with his Junior Friend, eating lunch with him at the elementary school and playing basketball, working on the computers and enjoying outdoor activities together. Brooks was instrumental in recruiting several other THS students as volunteer mentors with the Best Friends Program.
A Dickinson native, Brooks is a sophomore at Dickinson State University, where he is majoring in nursing. After graduation he hopes to work for a few years and then perhaps attend graduate school.
The Western Wellness Foundation’s board of directors established the $500 Best Friends Program Senior Friend Scholarship to help recruit new mentors to the
program and to encourage potential mentors to volunteer. To be eligible for the scholarship, the applicant must have volunteered as a Senior Friend with the Best Friends Program for at least nine months, submit an application form and an essay, and be attending post-secondary education or training in the 2010-2011 school year.
The Best Friends Program served more than 180 children last year in the eight-county area of southwest North Dakota, matching them one-to-one or in small groups with responsible, trained volunteer mentors. For information about Best Friends, call 483-8615 or 1-877-877-8685 toll free.
Past Scholarship Winners
