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Mentors Help Students Stay On Track

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By RONNIE BLAIR, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 9, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - As William Barnes and others chatted one day on the campus of Pasco-Hernando Community College, a man approached with a proposition that proved life altering for Barnes.

Barnes, a 62-year-old Vietnam War veteran, had been discussing the need to have someone to talk with, someone he could confide in, someone who could hear out his problems and offer advice.

"There aren't too many people my age on campus to relate to," Barnes said.

Then Imani Asukile, district coordinator of equity at PHCC, stepped into the conversation.

Asukile was putting together a program that would match students with a faculty or staff member who would act as a mentor.

The student and the mentor would meet for about 20 to 30 minutes each week for the first 10 weeks of the student's enrollment. The mentors would help steer the students toward campus resources. They would discuss majors and career possibilities.

Students who joined the mentoring program would have the opportunity to establish a more personal relationship with someone from the college.

The goal: Keep the students in school.

Asukile asked Barnes if he would be interested.

Intrigued, Barnes attended a luncheon where the program was explained more fully. After that, he was sold on it and became one of 18 students who elected to participate.

Bob Bade, the college's associate dean of student activities and engagement, was assigned as mentor for Barnes.

Barnes said the relationship works well.

"He's helped me out a lot," Barnes said. "I had a personal problem I aired out with him. He solved one end of it, and I solved the other end."

PHCC created the mentoring program this fall to target black students because, nationally, those students have the lowest graduation rate among all ethnic groups at community colleges, according to a 2005 study conducted through the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics.

Although blacks are the primary focus, any PHCC student may participate in the mentoring program.

"We are trying to create a model program that others could look at," said Asukile, a history columnist for The Pasco Tribune.

He and others from PHCC gave a presentation on mentoring about two weeks ago at the annual "Black, Brown & College Bound Summit" in Tampa.

Studies show that students with someone to mentor them perform better and are more likely to stay in school, Asukile said.

"I just had lunch with one of my mentors from when I was in the eighth grade," he said. "I still appreciate the relationship."

Barnes has become a strong advocate of the mentoring program and tries to recruit other students. He created a folder filled with information that he carries with him and gives his pitch whenever the opportunity arises.

His folder includes examples of famous people and their mentors, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and his mentor, Benjamin Mays, who was president of Morehouse College when King was a student there.

"If I can get these 18- and 19-year-old kids to get a mentor, they will learn to respect themselves better and live up to their expectations better," Barnes said. "They might stay in school. A lot of them drop out because they are having problems here or problems there. They just disappear."

Barnes, a native of Philadelphia, knows about problems.

He served in the Army from 1967 to 1970 and life wasn't easy after he returned from Vietnam.

He joined Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous and spent time at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Ga., and at James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa.

He said his life is back on track.

"I've been clean now 15 years," Barnes said.

He trained to become a certified nursing assistant and 11 years ago took a job at Southern Pines Health Care Center in New Port Richey, where he still works an 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift before he heads to classes at PHCC.

He is studying human services and may find work as a career counselor.

College agrees with him.

"It's fun; it's fascinating," he said. "I've never had algebra before. It's like a new language to me."

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218 or rblair@tampatrib.com.

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