For Victoria Wangler, the best part of being a Bona Buddy mentor is the chance to be a positive influence in someone’s life.

By Victoria Wangler, '21

I joined Bona Buddies in the Fall of 2020 after many semesters of interest and desire to be involved with the program. However, for various reason, I did not seek out an interview or application until the start of my senior year at Bonaventure. I already wish that I joined this amazing mentoring program sooner.

I have been involved with youth mentoring and similar work throughout my life. When I was in high school, I taught religious Sunday school to kindergarteners at my home church. I have also worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor for four years at the summer camp run through the Jewish Community Center in Rochester, New York. I loved interacting with the young campers; it was amazing to see the progress of the children’s swimming ability throughout the summer weeks. Both of these experiences made me closer to my community. I also gained so many new skills in communication, time management, patience, empathy, and having fun. Whether I have been in the camp pool teaching the back float to young campers or in a classroom teaching the basics of the Catholic faith to kindergarteners, I have learned so much from my students. Perhaps even more than they learned from me.

In the summer of 2019, I went on a short-term service and immersion trip to Guatemala City, Guatemala. The trip was organized through Franciscan Mission Service in Washington, D.C.; a handful of other Bonaventure students and myself were generously supported by the Franciscan Center for Social Concern and the School of Arts and Sciences. Thanks to their help, I spent eight days serving on the outskirts of the capital city. My fellow Bonnies and I, as well as a group of students and faculty from Neumann University in New Jersey, stayed at a Franciscan boarding school for Guatemalan children. We lived among our young hosts and hostesses, sharing meals, playing games, working in the gardens and the classrooms, doing chores, and praying in the school church. We also did outreach work in neighboring towns, visiting with families and distributing food packages.

My experience in Guatemala changed me profoundly. I saw God on the faces of those children. I can still see their faces in my mind’s eye. Mentoring and teaching children has always been important to me. I have always relished in the challenge of it. Working with children takes an enormous amount of mental energy, patience, creativity, and compassion. Alongside the bad days and the tiring moments are the special times, like being able to see a camper swim on their own for the first time or having a halting but genuine Spanish conversation with a young Guatemalan girl about our favorite Disney princess movie.

St. Bonaventure University’s Bona Buddies youth mentoring program has given me the opportunity to continue my involvement with mentoring children. I was beyond happy to find out that I was chosen to be partnered with a local student this semester and have the chance to support her throughout the year. Although the work this year looks different because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the creative and hardworking student leaders of the program have made it possible for me and other buddies to continue our outreach and connection with our youth buddies through letter writing and monthly goody bag drop-offs.

I am a strong believer that it only takes one person showing someone else one moment of kindness to change their life forever. I have been the recipient of the kindness from my own community; I have been so blessed to receive tremendous encouragement, guidance, and love from the guiding figures in my life. Bona Buddies provides the chance for college students to be figures of love and light within the local community for its children. I am so happy to be a part of this program and give back to the community that I have called my home for the past four years.