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Tuesday, March 3, 1987/The Battalion/Page 5
Aggie Friends provide support,
service to young people in B-CS
By Angela Cobb
Reporter
A special group of Texas A&M students is
brightening the lives of many Bryan-College Sta
tion children.
Aggie Friends is an organization of 37 stu
dents whose goal is to provide service and sup
port to young people. It’s sponsored by the A&M
Student Y Association and members are chosen
through an annual application and interview
process.
Saundra Stroope, Aggie Friends chairman,
says she and subchairman Benji Hubbard looked
for people who are enthusiastic and dependable.
“We wanted people we could depend on who
would be there for all the activities,” Stroope, a
junior psychology major, says.
Aggie Friends originally started as a Big
Brotner-Big Sister program in 1984, but getting
students to stay with the program was a problem,
says Hubbard, a junior secondary education ma
jor.
“It had trouble getting off the ground,” he
says.
In 1985 the organization was changed into a
group effort instead of a one-on-one program
between the students and the children to combat
the problem.
But another problem arose because the orga
nization couldn’t go through area schools to find
children, he says.
“Because of House Bill 72, the schools didn’t
want to work with us,” he says. “We decided to
“Igot involved in Aggie Friends be
cause 1 like kids. It makes you feel
like you've helped someone by giv
ing these kids a little highlight. ”
— Susan Eugster,
Aggie Friends member
change the program to a service organization for
kids.
House Bill 72 is a state bill that mandated
sweeping education reforms.
But Stroope says finding children to partici
pate in the program proved much easier this
year.
“We just called organizations that were in
volved with children and asked them if they
would like us to do activities with them,” she says.
“Most of them said that they would love to.”
Both Stroope and Hubbard express a desire
for Aggie Friends to succeed.
“I wanted it to work so bad,” Stroope says. “I
had ideas on how I wanted to change it, and I
think it is going great so far.”
Hubbard says, “I put everything I had into it. I
love kids to death and I wanted to see it work. It’s
a lot of fun.”
So far this school year, Aggie Friends seems to
be working well. In December, the group went
Christmas caroling in the children’s wing of St.
Joseph Hospital. And on Valentine’s Day, mem
bers gave a party for children in the federally
funded Head Start program, which gives needy
children a chance to get a head start on their edu
cation.
Students involved in Aggie Friends also are
enthusiastic about the program.
“I have two younger sisters at home who I
hardly get to see, and I wanted to be able work
with kids,” says David Mendoza, a junior com
puter science major.
North Texas
hopes to get
collider site
FORT WORTH (AP) — North
Texas officials are scrambling to
land a superconducting supercol
lider that would bring 3,000 jobs
and a $270 million-per-year bud
get.
The supercollider is a 52-mile,
doughnut-shaped tunnel, packed
with high-power electromagnets,
that allows beams of protons to be
shot at one another.
The North Texas Commission,
a group which promotes business
development in the area, must
persuade the Texas National Re
search Laboratory Commission to
propose the North Texas site to
the federal government.
Five other Texas sites, as well
as numerous other states, also are
vying for the project. Gov. Bill
Clements said last week that Illi
nois and California both have an
edge on Texas in the race for the
supercollider.
Specialist says preparing for role
is key to becoming better parent
By RaeAnn Warmann
Reporter
People will be better parents when
they make wise decisions, when they
prepare for their roles and when
the roles are ones that they want to
assume, a family life specialist says.
Diane Welch, a family life special
ist from the Texas Agricultural Ex
tension Service, says the average age
for getting married is 23, meaning
that the majority of students will be
parents in the next five to seven
years.
“At this time in their lives, what
they really are concerned about is
one, preparing themselves to get a
job and career,” she says, “two,
maybe looking at the possibility of
marriage, and three, thinking in
terms of ‘Do I really want parenting
to be a part of my life?’ ”
A parent must be willing to take
on the responsibility of a child for a
significant period of time until that
child can be responsible for himself
or herself, Welch says.
Some of the decisions young peo
ple must consider as they think
about becoming parents, she says,
are how much it will cost to raise a
child, how to combine the responsi
bilities of a career and parenthood,
and what kind of child day care is
available.
“The majority of women in this
country are working, the majority of
women in this country have children
and the majority of women are com
bining family roles and work roles,”
Welch says.
One of the responsibilities that
parents are faced with, she says, is in
providing a nurturing atmosphere
for the child. This atmosphere pro
vides emotional attachment, love,
guidance, discipline and encourage
ment.
She says parents need to have
knowledge and understanding of
the growth and development of chil
dren in four areas — social, intellec
tual, emotional and physical.
“When parents don’t know this,”
Welch says, “then often we get into
situations of unreasonable fexpecta-
tions which can lead to frustration
on the part of the parents, frustra
tion on the part of the child, and, at
the end of that continuum, abuses of
some sort.”
Parents need to learn how to man
age and share their role as parents
and develop appropriate stress man
agement techniques so an overload
of stress is not taken out on the child,
she says.
“If you’ve got a couple who are
trying to put themselves through
school, trying to earn a living, and
trying to be parents at the same time,
they’ve got several roles there,” she
says. “The more roles you add on,
the more stress you have.”
Some of the signs indicating stress
that stems from parenthood are a
feeling of being out of control, a tre
mendous amount of aggression, an
ger, and physical symptoms such as
headaches, tiredness or depression.
When parents feel stress, she says,
they should be certain that the child
is in a safe environment and then get
away from the child until their sense
of control returns.
Thissprin
make a break forit.
‘89
This Spring Break, catch a Greyhound® to
the beach, the mountains, or your hometown.
For just $89 round trip, you and your friends
will have a great time wherever you go.
Anywhere Greyhound goes.
JWGO GREYHOUND
i§f And leave the driving to us!
Greyhound • 114 E. Walton Drive, College Station • 696-0209 • Greyhound • 405 E. 29 St., Bryan • 779-8071
Must present a valid college student I.D. card upon purchase. No other discounts apply. Tickets are nontransferable and good for travel on Greyhound Lines,
Inc., and other participating carriers. Certain restrictions apply. Offer effective 2/1/87 through 6/15/87. Offer limited. Not valid in Canada. © 1987 Greyhound Lines, Inc.
Spring Break
Special
$7.00 Haircuts
(regular $10)
with this coupon
open M-F 9-6 Sat. 9-2
268-2051
Located in the Lower Level Memorial Student Center
f(5g)j exp. 3/31/87
RIDE TO LENTEN VESPER SERVICES
He’s been there for you
Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church
Call 693-4514
Now Offering
European Body Wraps
Pre-Spring Break Special
Sun Tana Membership
Mow 50% OFF
Buy 5 tanning sessions for $30 and
get 5 more for $1 each
Buy lO tanning sessions for $55 and
get lO more at $1 each
Offical
Tanning Center
of the
Miss Texas A&M Pageant
The Original.
Perfect Tan
Port Oak Square, Harvey Road
764-2771