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Episode #2005
Minority Male Mentoring
Brown: Natalie Bullock Brown, Host
Little: Pamela Little
Imes: James Imes
Dudley: Manuel Dudley
Brown: Teenagers who once wasted their years look forward to a new beginning, thanks to a new statewide, state-funded mentoring program for minority men. Find out if this program is working, next on Black Issues Forum.
Voiceover: Funding for this program was made possible in part by UNC-TV members.
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Brown: Good evening and welcome to Black Issues Forum. I'm Natalie Bullock Brown. Statistics say out of all the African Americans in college, 65% are women. The President of the North Carolina Community College System, Martin Lancaster says a new program is all about improving the odds and getting more black males in community colleges and keeping them enrolled. The program is the Minority Male Mentoring, or 3MI project, and its mission is to increase the graduation and retention rates of minority men attending community colleges. We're going to find out more about the program and meet some of its participants tonight. First I'd like to introduce Pamela Little, associate director of the Student Development Services Office at the Community College System. James Imes, a student at Mitchell Community College, and Manuel Dudley, Director of General Education at Mitchell Community College. Welcome all of you to the program. And I'd like to start off with Pam and ask you a little bit about the program in general. How did it even begin?
Little: Well, under the support of President Lancaster and senior administration I brought to them my idea of bringing this initiative to the system ____. With that, I researched and found a source to fund this initiative through the Governor's Crime Commission. Under the Governor's Crime Commission was able to receive funding of $73,000 our first year. With that, we sent out a request for proposals from all the community colleges asking them if they're interested in this program, that they will have to write a proposal. With that, five colleges were selected, and they were Durham Community College, Mitchell Community College, Piedmont Community College, Johnston Community College, Southeastern, and Wayne Community College. Those were the five selected the first year.
Brown: Okay, I want to continue with talking about the specific program, but I want to get back to you specifically, what was your vision, I mean, what even prompted you to come up with this idea, what were you seeing in your experience?
Little: I've worked in the system for about ten years now at various colleges as a counselor, and through my experience and observation I noticed that our minority males were not graduating at the same level as non-white students, so I said if I ever get the opportunity to get the state level, this is something that I want to initiate state-wide, and so with having, enabling me to be at this level, this was how it all began, initiating this type of program.
Brown: Well, what do you think the problem was, I mean, what was going on that would cause the statistics to be so low for black males?
Little: I think on our community campuses there wasn't a program per se for minority males, to encourage them, the support system there, although we do have support systems on our campus, but specifically for the minority male.
Brown: Well why do they need a specific program; why don't general mentoring programs or just counseling programs help?
Little: Someone they can identify with, having the same brother who is going through the same thing, or any other student that has the same issues; someone they can identify with. It was something that I felt was needed to show them that they had that support system there on that campus.
Brown: Did you notice any students wasting time on campus?
Little: Yes. From my years' experience working on various campuses, when there was time that you should be studying, they might have been studying, I mean, maybe studying, some, not all; playing cards or playing games. And I found that that time could be spent very much useful. And so this is something what we wanted to do, use that time wisely to increase the graduation rate, and by doing that, we implement that program to do just that.
Brown: Okay, tell me what county is Mitchell Community College in, because you mentioned that that was one of the schools that received funding.
Little: Mitchell is in Iredell County, located in Statesville, North Carolina. And that's one of the presenters here today, from Mitchell Community College.
Brown: Okay, what was it about their proposal that made you feel like, okay, their vision is on point and is in line with the mission of the whole program?
Little: First there was a committee that selects all the proposals, but in their proposal they were very innovative in bringing this program to the forefront at their college, bringing the innovation, the students' needs to be met, and with that, that's why they were funded, because they knew the mission of this grant.
Brown: Okay, Manuel, let me talk to you since I believe you are a part of the proposal development. What were you guys trying to do when you reached out, or when you applied for this funding, what was your vision for how the mentoring program would actually take place at Mitchell?
Dudley: Well, unfortunately I wasn't there when the proposal was submitted. I was working at another community college, actually Wayne Community College, one of the other recipients of the grant. I definitely have to give credit to Dr. Douglas Eason who is the president of Mitchell Community College. I think he responded to Pam's vision and he basically took this under his wing himself, wrote the proposal himself and pretty much galvanized Iredell County and the Statesville community, which basically supported him in this effort, and that's where everything got started. Dr. Ravsoni, he used to be the Vice President for Instruction at Mitchell Community College, also took that initiative, and then once I got hired at Mitchell Community College in November of last year is when definitely this was proposed to me, and I thought it was a great opportunity.
Brown: So what did you guys do this past year that you think helped the African-American males on your campus?
Dudley: Probably the question is, "What didn't we do?" We definitely kept the guys involved and engaged. And we did a lot of creative things with the young men. Of course you know, in talking to them, and of course Pam has also stated this, some of the young men feel a sense of distance from us. They see us kind of as the men in suits on campus, even though we're African American or minority males, they still see some sense of like a brick wall between us and them. So some of the things we did with them, probably the most popular thing we did, was we went to Washington, DC and stayed there for four days touring Washington, DC, and this was an initiative that we took on ourself from the school; it wasn't something that wasn't necessarily only supported by the Governor's Crime Commission, but we thought this was something that we should and could do.
Brown: Why Washington? I mean, there's so many other cities you could have gone to, but what about DC did you hope to share with the men?
Dudley: We felt this would be the perfect time to take a trip to our Nation's capital, particularly with what's going on, not only in our country, but all over the world. We wanted to instill a sense of patriotism with these young men, international citizenship, if you will. So we went to DC with a broader vision, we did so many things there: we toured Howard University, went to the Lincoln Memorial, the Smithsonian, some of the young men rode a subway for the first time. It was a great experience for them, just to get outside of North Carolina. Probably the highlight of the trip was visiting with Congressman Mel Watt. He opened his office to us, we stayed in his office for at least an hour and a half talking about of course the war, Cuba, North Carolina, the basketball team that just came to North Carolina. Talked about so many different things. One of our participants even sat in his chair, and he extended his chair to one of our young men. And one of the guys that went said he never thought that he would be in an office of a Congressman. So just that enriching experience for us and for the young men, we think was worthwhile.
Brown: James, was it as enriching as Manuel just said?
Imes: Oh yeah. It was great. I particularly loved just the dialog that he talked with us, you know, he talked one-on-one with everybody in the room.
Brown: You're talking about Congressman Watt?
Imes: Congressman Watt.
Brown: Mm-hmm.
Imes: Yes. and I think that was great for him to take out time in his busy schedule to talk to all of us.
Brown: How did that make you feel?
Imes: I made me feel good. I was enlightened and I was glad to see a guy from North Carolina in his position. That was great to see, so overall it was a great experience.
Brown: Tell me a little bit about where you were, just in your own words, where do you think you were in terms of your attitude, your work ethic prior to becoming a part of the mentoring program at Mitchell Community College?
Imes: Well, my attitude, I would like to say that it was a pretty good attitude towards academics and things of that nature, but as far as my work ethic, maybe a little procrastination in there, I'm not ashamed to say. But now that I've been working with these guys, good mentors and role models, I feel like they helped mold me and helped me get along in my pathway.
Brown: Did you, as soon as you heard about this program, did you feel like "That's for me, this is what I need to get involved in"?
Imes: Yeah, precisely. I felt like that was just the perfect club. I didn't want to get involved in too many things my first semester of college, but once I heard about it, I felt like that was perfect thing for me, just to get involved.
Brown: How did you hear about the program?
Imes: Actually through another student, a friend of mine named Eric Turner, which is a real good guy, cool guy.
Brown: And the other kids or students that are in the program with you, overall do you think all of you had a similar experience, because I know that just from talking to you that you really benefited, you really feel like this was a great program. Do you think other students felt the same way?
Imes: Oh yeah, I'm sure of it. We sat and talked about it. I met a lot of interesting guys that I probably wouldn't even know if it wasn't for this program, and it created a bond.
Brown: and so tell me about some of the people that you've now become friends with as a result of this, and you don't think you would have become friends with if not for the program.
Imes: Well, maybe more business oriented type person that maybe we don't have as much things in common, but some things. And this program helped me find those things that may not be on the surface that we have in common.
Brown: Pam, from what James has been saying, it just sounds like one of the key ingredients for the success of the program, if we can call it that at this point, since it's only a year old, is that the students get to meet people that are like them; they get to see the commonality. Would you say that's true.
Little: Yes. The students have an opportunity to meet the students who are possibly not in their major or in their major, and not only that but to help each other, because that's what it's about. If they have a course or something that may be difficult for one, most of the students, they'll jump in and say, "Hey, I know how to help you with this, I can assist you after class" or whatever. And that's what we want, it's almost like a fraternity, almost, to help students see that not only can you help yourselves but we're here as well. If you don't know something, ask. And that's pretty much how it works, but that's how it is at most colleges.
Brown: Well, have the students been from the jump, do they embrace that sort of attitude where if you have a question, ask, or whether you want to go and seek out help, do they-
Little: No.
Brown: They don't do that?
Little: You have to build that rapport with them first. Once they see that you are there to help and there is no harm in asking, no question is dumb, and you are receptive to every walk of life, and they know this and they can tell this. And they are willing to just help someone, just like the other student who told him, once they see yeah, it worked for me, I can tell somebody else and it's not an intimidating or threatening environment.
Brown: Okay, tell me a little bit about the mentors. And I want to ask you, Manuel, as well, what kind of mentors you have at Mitchell. But Pam, in general, are we talking about peer mentors, are we talking about adult mentors, what are we talking about?
Little: We're talking about both. Both, each college, again, is welcome to tailor their program based on their need. Some colleges have peers, some have para-professionals. Some have staff at their college being mentors, such as the instructors on the campus. So it really depends on what the campus need is and what the coordinators see would be a good fit for the students.
Brown: Manuel, at Mitchell, what is your, what's the vision there for mentorship and how that should work?
Dudley: A combination of both. Just this week we had our first meeting for 3MI where we met with all the faculty and staff at Mitchell Community College who want to take a part in this initiative. Last year they were very supportive, submitting names of students, volunteering their time to tutor. This year the vision is a little more intense and I think we basically want to capitalize on some of the things we did last year. We want to involve tutoring programs for the young men, have them take tutors or have tutors for their mathematics and English classes; we're going to focus on workforce preparedness and development to prepare them for the workforce once they graduate. And also we're going to implement a service learning component this year, get them involved in the community. And particularly the one that we want to implement this year is a reading program in the local schools. We want to have all the young men volunteer their time to read books to children.
Brown: Why do you think that that would be useful?
Dudley: Increasing literacy, not only in our community but also with our participants, and the interesting thing about our guys, the 15 that we chose last year, it might be kind of a misnomer, but we have an inter-generational component in our program. We have young men, our men from age 18 to 56, so we don't want it to seem like it's just young men aged 18 to 25. We have gentlemen who are over age 35 who are in school, and I think the bond that they share with the young men, so not only do we have mentorship from the community and on the campus, but we also have mentors within the organization.
Brown: James, how does that make you feel to have people that are your age who are willing to help you as well as people who are in classes with you who are much, much older who probably are old enough to be your father, also willing to participate in this with you?
Imes: I makes me feel good that I can have a bond with an older guy. That goes back to what I was saying about maybe we wouldn't have that type of bond if it wasn't for this program. So that's quite.
Brown: Pam, let me ask you about the funding dollars. Can you just break down a little bit how much money goes to each college that's chosen and then what does that money go towards?
Little: Our first year the Governor's Crime Commission funded us $14,000, with a match the school would have to fund $4900. And with those funds they are to create programs for mentoring, drug and substance abuse, because under the Governor's Crime Commission, there is a drug and substance abuse component that we must implement. And with that, we wanted to encourage education prevention in our schools, when it comes to the drug and substance abuse component.
Brown: So when you say education prevention, you mean you want to inform the students about the dangers?
Little: Yes, because we didn't want them to get off that path of excellence. And so to show them that if you show this alternative, this is what can happen. And so with that, not only with mentoring a part of it, but the drug and substance abuse education, just citizenship, leadership programs involved, and to helping these students to succeed to be into, in order to graduate and increase graduation rate.
Brown: Let me get back to the drug and substance abuse portion of the whole thing. I just want to make sure I'm clear. It's not necessarily that there are students on campus that are dealing with these issues; this is all proactive, this is prevention.
Little: Yes, yes. Through the Governor's Crime Commission we were under the drug and substance abuse funding source, and so with that we had to implement some type of drug and substance abuse education, instead of promoting it as all African-American males or any minority male is on drugs, we wanted to promote education, just showing them this is the path you don't want to go. And so with that, each college has to implement that type of component to their program.
Brown: I'd like to ask you and Manuel, and actually James, you might have some thoughts about this-any advice for African-American males or minority males in general who are on college campuses that don't have this sort of program, what they can do to seek out the help that they need?
Little: See their student development service office, let them know that this is what they want and like to see on their campus. Most colleges, they have type of counseling program but specifically if you want something just for the African-American male, the minority males on your campus, just let it be known to that college that this is what you want to see happen, because they want to address the needs of students on campus.
Brown: Right...well, I'll get back to that. Manual, obviously James Imes is a success story; he's sitting here with us today, but can you, do you have any other stories that you'd like to share with us of student who may have come into the program and just weren't sure about how they were going to do well? You don't have to say any names, but just any anecdotes you'd like to share.
Dudley: Oh definitely, we can go on for hours of course about some of the personal stories or the participants. And of course you can't save everyone, you definitely want to be real about that. Some students decided either to go a different path or either not return, but as far as the highlights in the students that have stayed involved with the program, we have one who is now Vice President of Student Government at Mitchell Community College. He's a 3MI participant.
Brown: And was he only in the program for one year?
Dudley: Only in the program for one year. His sense of leadership not only in the community but on campus, has increased, has doubled with where he was. And he comes from an interesting history, not to share some of those things right now, but he has a very interesting history, so we definitely are proud of him. There's another student at one time that was homeless, and of course confidentiality, I can't express his name or give his name, but this student was homeless at one point, is now on the road to success. He is embarking on a great career in the medical field and is engaged, feeling good about himself and is on the right track.
Brown: How would you assess the program in terms of the benefit to young people like the ones you've just described, that turns around their life in such a dramatic way?
Dudley: Having a sense of ownership in where they are. That's something that we've tried to instill at the Mitchell program. Being comfortable where you are and feeling like if you make a mistake, we're going to be there to pick you up. Unfortunately some students feel like if they're making a bad grade on a course, if they don't have the financial assistance, that's it. they don't have the support mechanism unfortunately in their own homes or in their community. So feeling like they can rely on us, they can come to us if they make a mistake, I think is probably the best thing that we can instill.
Brown: Great. Pam, plans for the future?
Little: Plans for the future, we're planning on continuing next year. Fortunately we're rewarded next year, from the Governor's Crime Commission. This we had a 50% increase, $125,000 that will go to five colleges, and to help with their mission. And again, like Manuel was stating earlier, we're going to really take it up a notch. We're going to make sure that students get the leadership skills, soft skills so once they graduate and go through those doors they're to keep that job and get that job. And so those are the things we're going to focus on, because again, we don't want to promote that the African-American male, you're not being productive. They are, and that's what we want to dismiss, that notion that African-American males are not doing well in school, and they are.
Brown: I'm so sorry, but I just wanted to get this in, are any women involved in the mentoring program; is it just all male?
Little: We do have women coordinators and advisors. Southeastern Community College, the coordinator is a woman as well as at Wayne Community College and at Piedmont. So most of our programs are led by women, but a lot of males on campus are helping out. And to get back to one of the questions you asked, our program is really helping students we have, students that's going to four-year colleges, just graduated from Southeastern, is going to North Carolina A&T. And so we're helping a lot of students, and that's going back to school and making a better life for themselves.
Brown: Well, one of those students that you've helped is apparently James Imes. And I hear that you've written something that you'd like to share with us.
Imes: Oh yeah, sure. Here we go. I call it 3MI.
This program is an honor just to be involved in, because when it comes to helping a fellow brother I'm all in, full steam ahead, no half-stepping or stalling, whether we're traveling, studying, just chilling or talking. I think these are some guys that I can learn to trust down-to-earth cats like myself, and I'm earning their trust; no stagnant brains around here, man. Learning is a must, and after the learning the knowledge will be earning those bucks. I'm striving toward my peak potential. I'm trying to be a young man complete with the credentials, taken under the 3MI wing to mold my mentals. I break my neck not to let them down, it's just that simple. I love the way these brothers just offer support. I'm truly consumed with this like an awesome sport linking up with my brothers of all sorts, so 3MI is superb. I'm all for it.
Brown: Thank you, that's awesome. Thank you to all of you for being here today. And if you'd like to learn more about the Community College System's Minority Male Mentoring Program, or obtain a copy or transcript of tonight's show, visit us online at www.unctv.org/bif. Or call us at 919-549-7167. Be sure to join us each and every Friday night at 9:30 p.m. for more stimulating discussion. For Black Issues Forum, I'm Natalie Bullock Brown reminding you to be encouraged, no matter what. Good night.
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Voiceover: Funding for this program is made possible in part by UNC-TV members.
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