A&M gets mentor grant
Funds will help guide black male students
Texas A&M UniversityTexarkana received a grant Thursday for a new mentorship program designed to give African-American male students additional guidance and support to ensure their academic success.
The Texas Pioneer Foundation donated $183,570 to create the Personal Achievement Through Help project, a three-year program that will accept 25 students each year.
Toney Favors, director of admissions at A&M-Texarkana, said they created the program to target this demographic because studies show AfricanAmerican males have the lowest college graduation rate across the nation.
“One of the things with African-Americans, there are trials and tribulations that we go through that sometimes others may not understand,” he said, adding that having a mentor who’s been there and understands can make the difference in completing a degree program.
“Sometimes those things that happen in our daily lives, our kids’ daily lives, particularly African-American males, caus-
es them not to want to continue on,” Favors said. “If you have someone there guiding you each week, a mentor, you have that extra support.”
Mentors will be fellow A&MTexarkana students, who will meet with program participants once a week to discuss academic, personal and professional issues.
The program is modeled after a similar project at Tarleton State University, according to Dr. Emily Cutrer, A&MTexarkana president. She thanked Fred Markham, president of the Texas Pioneer Foundation, for bringing the idea to her campus.
“Without Mr. Markham’s input and suggestions, we might no have known about it,” she said. “That’s a great gift to us.”
Markham, whose foundation has given several grants to the university, said the program would be a life-changer for the students selected for the program.
“I’ve seen and experienced the impact that higher education has on individual lives and families,” he said. “This program brings a dimension that I think is important. It’s important to our community. But, more importantly…many of our grants I consider a gift. This one is an investment. This is an investment in the lives of these young men and their families and the impact that it can have on them and their future generations.”
Cutrer agreed, saying, “This donation will really make a big difference in the lives of a number of our students here on campus.” She added that the PATH acronym was appropriate the program, as it was showing students the walkway of academic and personal success.
“I think it’s a wonderful acronym for something at a university, because what is a university except a pathway to a different kind of life,” she said. “We are so pleased to have this particular path here at A&MTexarkana.”