Learning how to market oneself effectively is another crucial skill, says Dr. Freddie Sandipher, president of the National Council on Black American Affairs.

"Many [African American scholars] are taking the necessary steps, but they still need to polish up on articulating that on paper as well as in the interviews," she says.

Several programs exist across the country to help people of color cultivate these skills in specific preparation for pursuing a community college presidency.

Dr. Don Phelps, a former African American community college president and chancellor, is now a W.K. Kellogg Regents professor at the University of Texas-Austin, where he also chairs the department of educational administration. Phelps teaches in the Community College Leadership Program, where he says minorities are usually well represented.

"There've never been fewer than four or five African American students in a class of twelve to fifteen," he says.

There are approximately sixty such graduate programs in the United States and Canada that emphasize the study of community colleges.

Several higher education associations also offer seminars, internships, and workshops designed to improve management and leadership skills. The American Association of Community Colleges, the American Council on Education, the Association Community College Trustees, and the National Council on Black American Affairs offer such programs -- which are aimed at encouraging more people of color to consider presidential careers.

And as Phelps notes in his 1997 study with Lynn Sullivan Taber and Cindra Smith, African Americans need the encouragement, since even those who are already college administrators often do not perceive seeking a presidency as an attainable goal.

"Black folks usually go to work in places where other Black folks have jobs," says Phelps. "And that's not typically in college administration."

Dr. Belle Wheelan gives testimony to this phenomenon. The newly appointed president of Northern Virginia Community College says she was thirty years old before she even met another Black woman with a Ph.D., let alone though about pursuing a college presidency. In her opinion, the mentor programs that exist today are crucial to shaping the next generation of leaders who will seize tomorrow's abundance of opportunities.