beneficiaries

Oklahoma City Community College Foundation

$21,000
EDUCATION

“Mentorship Program”

DeAndre was sleeping in a dumpster. Rosaria is a single mother caring for her mom and raising her son. Jordan is a former drug dealer. These are stories of many Oklahoma City Community College’s first generation students.

Students Connecting with Mentors for Success (SCMS) is a life-changing mentorship program that pairs struggling students with mentors. African American males had a high dropout rate and low GPA. After joining SCMS, their GPA went from 2.04 to 3.35! And 93% of SCMS students who graduated in May 2019 transferred to a four-year college!

This program now includes African American females, Hispanic and Native American students. With this grant, we can expand capacity to all first generation students, adding 200 students in two years, many of whom never dreamed a college degree was possible; and recruit their mentors.

Your grant will provide scholarships, speakers, meals with mentors, field trips to colleges, and visits to businesses. Computers will allow mentors and students to connect weekly to discuss class, grades, family, struggles and life. Students can complete homework assignments, and apply for scholarships, financial aid and college admission.

Since Covid 19 closed campus, the importance of having computer access becomes exponentially important for students to connect to mentors, professors and virtual classmates. Scholarships are critical as struggling students experience crippling financial hardship. This program will serve as a stabilizing force, a safe haven when life is uncertain, unstable and unpredictable.

This mentorship program will impact the lives of every first generation student as they graduate, advance their education, get jobs, become taxpayers, have families and invest in our community – and most importantly, they have a mentor who can help them along the way.

“Without this program, I don’t know where I would be – not in college, probably on the street. SCMS has saved my life.”

https://www.occc.edu/scms/