This semester, the Texas A&M chapter of Kappa Sigma has begun work with the College Hills Baptist Church to help tutor and mentor kids in the Bryan-College Station area, coordinated with the help of Derrick Eaton from 99tutors.com.

Craig Staples, the president of Kappa Sigma, said he came upon this opportunity through another member. 

“Basically, we’re going to be going in every Thursday night,” Staples said. “For an hour at a time, we’ll just have around 10 guys there tutoring kids of all ages from the Bryan-College Station community that show up to get help with school work and [a] variety of classes.”

On-campus organizations with a weekly philanthropy focus were an inspiration, Staples said.

“I thought that was really cool because the guys all get bought in because they’re doing this thing for the community every week they’re seeing the kids,” Staples said. “They’re seeing the effect they have on them, and they’re able to raise money for them.”

Scholarships were put in place for students in this program, funded through money each fraternity or organization designated for the students, Detrick Eaton, the CEO at 99tutors.com, said.

“It was a small, little scholarship money that’s given to each of them just to help them along the way,” Eaton said.

The scholarships are a minimum of $1,000 every semester, but Kappa Sigma is hoping to exceed that, Staples said.

“This will become one of the benefactors from our big philanthropy events, our biggest one being Wicked Woods in the fall,” Staples said. “We basically turn our property into a haunted trail [and] haunted house, [and] in the fall we raised $40,000.”

While previously having engaged with their national philanthropy and their larger seasonal philanthropy events, tutoring will be a different type of experience for fraternity members, Staples said.

“This will be the first Kappa Sig[ma] philanthropy when we are just providing our time to the community ourselves,” Staples said.

Darlene Williams, a coordinator with the church and the tutoring program since 2004, said mentoring from college students is something the kids really enjoy in addition to the tutoring.

“A lot of kids say they enjoy coming to [tutoring],” Williams said. “They’re not only tutoring them, they’re asking them about academics and what they’re going to do when school’s out … [and] they communicate with them very well.”

Eaton said he commended Staples and Kappa Sigma for stepping up to an annual year-long commitment.

“The unique thing is, not only are they providing tutoring for these students, they’re also being mentors [and] big brothers,” Eaton said. “There’s a lot more than just sitting down and helping a student with something academically, being a positive role model in their lives.”