MCC offering male mentorship program for high schoolers

“Since this whole goal is college preparation, why not try to do something to impact those 9, 10, 11, 12 graders,” he said. “To help keep them on that track of higher education and launch career preparation.”

There will be five sessions this year, where male students in grades ninth through twelfth will meet with mentors. The mentors will be members of the community who have backgrounds in engineering, the technology field, doctors, lawyers, and business owners.

“We have adults that want to give back, people who live here who want to give back to younger people,” said Bowles.

The sessions will be from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., with lunch being served at 12:30 p.m. in the Steve Beshear Center on the North Campus.

The first session will be this Saturday, then Saturday, Feb. 28, Saturday, March 25, Saturday, April 29, and the last session will be Saturday, May 27.

Each session will have engaging activities and each student will have a mentor to speak to them directly to learn what they want to do.

“We wanted to connect the young people to create that awareness that opportunities are out there that they need to start thinking early, and we are here to assist,” said Bowles.

The college will also have its resources available for the students, including tutoring once in college, financial aid, and career planning.

Bowles said this is just a trial run to see if the students and mentors like the program.

“If it turns out to be something the young people are interested in, we hope to continue this next year,” he said.

The reason for it being a male-only mentor program is that is what they could get funding for it. They would like to have a female mentor program as well down the line.

“The funding right now came through for a male program because if you look at the college population, the males are not showing up in the numbers as females,” said Bowles. “This is something we would love to have for the females in the future if we can get funding.”

He said they already have 10 students signed up for the program, but would love to have more.

“We really want the parents to encourage their kids to really think about being a part of this initiative,” said Bowles.

There will be more information on the MCC Facebook page, and they do plan to have a website up soon that will be shared across the MCC Facebook page.

For more information, or to sign up, email james.bo wles@kctcs.edu.