Amy R. Jacob '02, director of Cambridge One-to-One, a big sibling program, says her program goes through an elaborate screening process which includes an application, an in-depth interview and two reccomendations.

"The people that apply are a self-selected group," she says.

Joh says she thinks that most volunteers of Mather School Mentoring are experienced enough to forgo extensive training.

"Most have experience tutoring small children from before the program," she says.

Program leaders for HARMONY, a program in which undergraduates give one-on-one music lessons to community children, are also confident about the quality of their volunteers.

"HARMONY is such a large program, but because it's individualized, volunteers can really do what they are good at," says Christine Chiou '01, HARMONY's co-director. "Through music, students have the opportunity to act as a Big Sib and watch someone grow."

Education experts say volunteer programs tend to work best when volunteers have a limited set of goals and objectives to compensate for the lack of mandatory training sessions.

"We can't make additional training programs mandatory. That would never fly," McGowan says. "People won't show up if they think it's just another class."