The Citrus College counseling faculty hosted the third conference for the Men of Color Mentor Program on Oct. 13.
Eight to 10 group members met in the Ross L. Handy Campus Center with guest speakers discussed a variety of different subjects, which involve financial literacy, banking and many more objectives.
Raul Sanchez, a counselor of the EOPS/CARE Department and a mentor of the program, said that the goal of the Men of Color Mentor Program is to “reach out to students who are predominantly men of color who formulate academic goals to obtain scholarships and to thrive in their educational path.”
Despite facing a tough challenge with the first conference of this program being remote, the conferences were still being emphasized heavily by the mentors for the sake of helping out students in need for their educational achievements.
Levi Richard, another mentor of the program said that “the type of conversations we want to have with students and the information we want to convey to them works best in a face-to-face environment…without a strong presence on campus, it is more difficult to connect with and inform students about the conferences.”
Sanchez said the theme of this conference is to “empower, engage, and elevate” the students who take part.
Richard said the conference plan is to “get more students to become aware of the mentoring program and then connect with a mentor.”
For every conference the mentors have done for the program, Sanchez said they do it with the goal of “creating a community of engagement, a sense of belonging and to instill a place of higher education for all.”
The main element of the Men of Color mentor program is connecting and relating to other students and to inspire a future generation to achieve their educational goals.
The program has given away $5,000 to participants. In the conference for spring of 2021, $2,000 was given to four students. In spring of 2022, $2,500 was given away. The program is seeking out donations on its website, which will be used in the conference and for future ones.
The program is effective for disadvantaged students. Richard said students in this program “have been grateful to know that there are faculty and staff who have overcome the obstacles some of them are currently facing and are committed to helping them succeed.”
The conference served food and ran from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. To register or make a donation to the Men of Color mentor program, visit its website, https://www.citruscollege.edu/stdntsrv/moc/Pages/default.aspx.
