UAAMP is the Urban African American Mentor Program. The program connects a faculty member, staff member and student to help the student succeed. The program began in 2006 after realizing that less and less students were graduating. Realizing this, a group of faculty and staff set out to find the problem and solve it. In a research project, they found that students lacked a connection to faculty and staff they needed.
\n\u201cWe thought it would be a good idea to connect [students] with a faculty member and a staff member so they would have resources from both sides of Sinclair to help them be able to reach their dreams of what they wanted to be able to do,\u201d program coordinator Linda Pastore-Gaal said.
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\nWhile the program is determined to help students in need, it supports those who want to help themselves. The program is selective and recruits students. Students interested must have at least a 2.0 GPA, have completed at least six credit hours and are at least in their second semester. There is also an application and interview process. In this process, coordinators such as Pastore-Gaal make sure the student is serious and committed to the program.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a commitment that you\u2019re willing to work with a mentor team and that you\u2019re willing to learn more and be more interactive and connected with Sinclair,\u201d Pastore-Gaal said.
\nWhile the application process can be intimidating, it is in the student\u2019s best interest. The program is there to help the student achieve their goals. Coordinator Dona Fletcher notes that students generally have an idea of the things holding them back or things they want to improve.
\n\u201cThe students actually determine what they need help with and that\u2019s what we seek to provide through the mentors,\u201d Fletcher said.
\nFaculty and staff members also have an application process to explain why they want to be involved. Faculty and staff are also asked to be fully committed. Faculty, staff and students are put together based on similarities. For example, a chemistry major would be put with a chemistry staff member. This is all in an attempt to build deeper connections that will help advance the student and help them reach their goals.
\n\u201cI think a lot of people who join to be mentors view it as an opportunity to give back because somewhere along their journey, someone has mentored them,\u201d Coordinator Kelly Smith said.
\nOnce mentor teams are together, they meet every week face-to-face. This is a requirement in the program to build those relationships. \u201cIt\u2019s all about getting to know each other and connecting because every single group is different,\u201d Pastore-Gaal said.
\nIn the end, the goal is simple. Graduation. The program is in place to get students a degree or certificate so they can enter the workforce or transfer to another institution. UAAMP gets involved as early as possible and follow them to the end.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re at the finish line cheering with them,\u201d Smith said.
\nIn addition to working on the student\u2019s academic life, the program also requires students do something for the community. This is done through a yearly service project. Fletcher, who added the service learning to UAAMP. As a group, UAAMP chooses a community service to do together in the spring.
\n\u201cTo me, it is very important that students are connected to the communities they are from,\u201d Fletcher said.
\nLast year, the students participated in making \u201cBlessing Bags\u201d and Smith says the turnout was amazing. The \u201cBlessing Bags\u201d contained toiletries and other essential products for those in need. Together, UAAMP created 250 \u201cBlessing Bags\u201d that were then distributed to several nonprofit organizations.
\nThese service projects are meant to help the students as well as the community. Everything in the program is for its students.
\n\u201cFor us, it\u2019s all about the student,\u201d Pastore-Gaal said. <\/p>\n
Celia Lavoie<\/strong> UAAMP is the Urban African American Mentor Program. The program connects a faculty member, staff member and student to help the student succeed. The program began in 2006 after realizing that less and less students were graduating. Realizing this, a group of faculty and staff set out to find the problem and solve it. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[2035],"class_list":["post-12715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-celia-lavoie"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-3j5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12716,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12715\/revisions\/12716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nReporter<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"