Wingate's Men of Valor

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Wingate’s Men of Valor Program also known as MVP is a free six-week Saturday, college access program geared to provide appropriate academic support services to high school male students. This program is brand new to Wingate University, and it started during the spring semester of 2013. This incredible academic opportunity is provided for free through a grant by The North Carolina Independent College and Universities organization. The program is led by Masoy Henry, who is a Wingate success coach and Ivan Raymond who is a graduate student at Wingate University. The program is designed to equip these young men with information crucial to graduating high school and pursuing a college education. The program involves six mentors and the mentors are responsible for mentoring and leading up to thirty male high school sophomores, juniors, and some seniors. There are certain responsibilities that mentors must accept in order to be considered for this program. Some of the responsibilities include: attend weekly meetings, assist in the planning of workshop sessions, address student concerns, develop leadership skills during workshop sessions, and communicate amongst faculty and staff concerning student needs. There are also qualifications for applying mentors as well. The mentor must be a sophomore or higher enrolled at Wingate University, have strong leadership skills, able to attend all Saturday workshop sessions, good communication skills and interpersonal skills, able to work with a diverse group of students and have minimum GPA of 2.5. Each workshop is held every Saturday and begins at ten a.m. and ends at noon with lunch provided for the students. Every Saturday of the workshop there is a different topic discussed. There are six topics total and they include: why go to college? , how to get into college? , how to choose a college? , how to pay for college? , how to make the transition to college? , and how to stay in college? Some components of the program include: one-on-one success coaching, free tutoring and homework assistance, monthly outings, and a complimentary motivational book. On the last Saturday of the program graduation is held recognizing students who have attended at least four of the six workshop sessions, during the graduation the students will receive the motivational book, a certificate of completion, and a Wingate University backpack filled with tools to help students succeed in high school and college. The outings after the program is finished include anything that the leaders and the mentors can come up with that would be fun and stays in the budget of the program. This program was successful during the spring semester of 2013 and will continue to be with the participation of students who want to be mentors and the high school students who participate. This program is a program that could help a lot of males seek a future and have an idea of what they want to do in life.

