Described is the Companion Program at Southern Illinois University, in which undergraduate volunteers serve as friends to self-identified, socially isolated, alienated or lonely students who have a clear potential which they have been unable to realize. Volunteer functions are enumerated: (1) participation in weekly training sessions where effective interpersonal functioning is developed and enhanced; (2) engaging in testing and observational measures; and (3) maintaining reasonable contact with socially isolated peer friends. The quarter-by-quarter development of the program from its inception to the present is elaborated. The author highlights the problems encountered and the resultant changes in the areas of: (l) recruitment and selection of the companion volunteers; (2) their training and the development of training materials; and (3) the search for needy students who would not generally seek help on their own (TL)