Unemployment, poor housing, inadequate preparation, childcare needs, discrimination and low expectations are among the issues that have hampered minority student success at community colleges. Throughout the country, the two-year institutions are reaching out and providing the needed support.

The programs may have different names from campus to campus, but the goal is the same – retain minority students and support them through graduation and admittance to four-year institutions. At the heart of the programs is mentoring, that one-to-one connection offering students a friendly face or a safe place to disclose their personal challenges and receive help.

For 20 years, Roy Pompey has reached out to students at Hudson Valley Community College as program director of its minority mentor program. While the program may have morphed into what it is today, the Collegiate Academic Support Program, which offers formal and informal mentoring and academic support, the challenges have remained the same since its inception.

Students are identified through the admissions office and are invited to an orientation, which begins the tracking process. Located in the Campus Center building on the second floor next door to food services, other students wander in seeking tutoring and support. Students who have found success in the offices return with friends.

Participants receive math and science tutoring, and are matched with a mentor on a formal or informal basis. Pompey also serves as an informal mentor. A retention specialist works with Pompey to monitor the 250-300 students who are on their list each semester.

“I have seen my math specialist take a student from an F to an A,” Pompey says. “We have a number of students in and out of our office all the time. Kids let us know in their own way that they need help.”

The program currently boasts an 85 percent retention and graduation rate.

“It’s an impact position,” Pompey says. “We’re impacting the lives of people all the time. They need a place that’s safe and the opportunity to get an education.”