PORTLAND, Ore. - A group of Portland State student athletes took some time to give back to their community on Thursday, Jan. 10, hosting a group of elementary school students from Friends of the Children, a Portland based mentoring organization, by helping them with homework, playing basketball and spending time getting to know the kids.

The PSU athletes joined Friends of the Children through a Portland State program called GPS, which helps Viking student athletes to "Navigate from young athletes to mature adults."

The evening started with kids and PSU student athletes first pairing up and either working on homework or using the computer lab to research the child's interests. The teams then made a presentation to the rest of the group as to what they had learned. 

Following the tutoring session, the kids had an opportunity to play basketball with the Viks, participating in relay races as well as several games of knock-out. 

Friends of the Children is a mentoring program with a mission to provide the most vulnerable children to a nurturing and sustained relationship with a professional mentor who teaches positive values and has attainable expectations for each child to become healthy, productive members of the community. 

The GPS program plans on having several more tutoring sessions with the kids from Friends of the Children this quarter.

Click here to watch the video recap.