Empowering Students: A Year of Mentorship
We are excited that Project Males has officially wrapped up the 2023-2024 mentoring season. This is our 12th year of mentoring with Austin Independent School District (AISD), Del Valle School Districts, and other Central Texas ISDs. Our team lead, Clint Lafuente, has successfully led the site coordinator team throughout the year.
Our fellow site coordinators, Celine Norman, Saul Barrera, Giovanna Urbina, and Raul Maldonado, and undergraduate mentors mentor in sites like Northeast High School, Webb Middle School, and McCallum High School. Sessions include exploring the five pillars-Identity, Leadership, Brotherhood, Health and Wellness, and College/Career Readiness that structure our curriculum and mentoring sessions. Site coordinators facilitated workshops and activities exploring role models and special people that the students look up to, where students could reflect on their own identities and the qualities of their role models that they want to emulate. Other sessions are centered around building off the students’ strengths while striving for academic excellence.
Along with our incredible team, the support of our undergraduate mentors plays a critical role in mentoring. These students, many of whom are first-generation college students of color, derive from the communities we serve and see this as an opportunity to give back and nourish students into pursuing a college education. Mentors are trained during our semester mentoring retreats and throughout the year in our IMPACT service-learning course and through our student organization SOL: Sustaining Ourselves as Lideras, led by Donovan Ricondo, Maria Aramburo, and Victoria Cuellar. The SOL organization serves as a platform for Project MALES’s current, future, and prospective mentors to unite, foster connections, socialize, and nurture a community rooted in our shared values. Through events like Project MALES Pláticas, we engage with the broader Project MALES community, facilitating meaningful interactions with keynote speakers and mock training sessions.
Additionally, SOL offers individual meetings where students can candidly share their experiences navigating their initial mentorship roles and understanding their impact on the students they serve. Ultimately, SOL aims to amplify Project MALES message and advocate for why students should be part of such an impactful organization.
In conjunction with SOL and the weekly mentoring sessions, we conduct the LA 113P IMPACT service-learning course. IMPACT serves as a training for our undergraduate mentors. These students are experts in navigating and positioning themselves at UT and act as leaders and pillars of hope for mentees. This course was led by Giovanna Urbina and Saul Barrera, TAs and graduate student coordinators. They center on their teaching and pedagogy, an interdisciplinary approach that bridges academic disciplines and cultural contexts. This interdisciplinary foundation ensures that mentorship experiences are holistic and empathetic and foster a deep sense of belonging and empowerment among participants.
Through this approach, our mentors empower students to challenge systemic injustices, advocate for equity, and become agents of change in their communities while striving for academic excellence.
Longhorn for a Day
Reflecting on the remarkable tradition of Longhorn for a Day, we’ve proudly hosted an annual event for the past decade in collaboration with UT, AISD, Del Valle ISD, and other ISD schools. This immersive experience, held this April 5th, 2024, continues to be a transformative journey for students from various AISD sites. It’s become a cornerstone of our program, this year offering over 90 students not just a tour of the campus, but also the chance to engage in mock lecture led by Dr. Kevin Foster, breakout sessions led by SOL, and a campus-wide Scavenger Hunt that included UT landmarks like the Gordon White Building that houses the Latinx Studies/African and African American Diaspora Programs, Barbara Jordan and Cesar Chavez statutes, and the state of the art Alienware video gaming labs. Our enduring goal remains through planned activities and engaging tours: to demystify higher education spaces and instill in these young scholars the vision of themselves as future university scholars. Over the years, our commitment has grown stronger, providing countless opportunities for students to interact with UT peers, collaborate with neighboring AISD students from Webb Middle School, Kealing Middle School, Northeast College High School, Dailey Middle School, and many more to enjoy the camaraderie of an all-you-can-eat lunch in Jester dining hall on the iconic 40 acres. This event, steeped in tradition and impact, continues to serve as a beacon of inspiration for young minds, reaffirming their potential and fueling their aspirations for the journey ahead.
NorthEast Lakeview College/Alamo College District Campus Visit
Project Males had the pleasure of hosting a group of men this month from NorthEast Lakeview College (NLC) from the Alamo College District in San Antonio on the UT campus. These student leaders were carefully selected as they were all a part of the Male of Excellence Network at the NLC campus that offers associate degrees and continuing education. This program is designed to increase engagement, retention, success, and completion for Northeast Lakeview College male students. The Male Excellence Network program is a year-long cohort program that provides engaging, systematic, and holistic support for NLC male students. The program will allow NLC male students to learn and apply skills that will empower them to achieve their academic, career, and life goals, as well as establish them as leaders among their peers.
We had the pleasure of guiding them through an interactive tour of our Latinx and Mexican-American Studies Department and African and African American Diaspora Departments in the Gordon-White Building and leading a group of college students on an immersive journey through the art gallery, where they were able to explore and appreciate the vibrant tapestry of artistic expression from a diverse array of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) artists. We orchestrated this enriching tour and event specifically for students currently pursuing their associate degrees, with the earnest aspiration that their experience would catalyze considering UT as their destination for obtaining their bachelor’s degrees. We aimed to provide them with an insightful glimpse into the vibrant academic and cultural landscape of UT, igniting a sense of excitement and possibility as they contemplate their future educational endeavors after the associate level.
