Description
Abstract
DREAMS stands for Desire, Readiness, Empowerment, Action, and Mastery for Success. Dreams afterschool intervention programme (ASIP) is to empower children who are weak in psychosocial skills to realize their full potential and to plan for a successful life with the help of college student mentors and senior community mentors. The present study explored the college student mentors’ interest and motivation to serve at DREAMS and the volunteering intention to stay or discontinue as mentors. The study bases its investigation purely on the mentors’ revelation of their experiences of DREAMS ASIP. Study followed phenomenological inquiry method and conducted semi-structured interview with 10 college-student mentors, which included 6 active mentors and 4 dropouts. A face-to-face interview conducted by the researchers recorded all the unique points diligently and conducted the data analysis using thematic analysis. Study found 3 main themes and 12 subordinate themes out of thematic analysis. The master themes are mentors interest, mentors motivation, and mentors volunteering experiences. The results section of the article presents the details of themes and sub-themes along with few excerpts of interviewees. Implications of the study might help other ASPs to understand the nature of their volunteers interest and motivation. Future researchers may study factors affecting the mentors’ strengths and weaknesses within the organisation.
Keywords: DREAMS, College student mentors, After-school intervention, Volunteers
