The College Access Initiative team, a Student Affairs unit housed in the Multicultural Center, announces its newest program: the Arkansas Mentorship Program. A near-peer mentorship program, AMP kicked off earlier this fall, and it is designed to provide college access resources to students through virtual pairings of U of A undergraduates and high schoolers at Little Rock School District's Southwest High School.

Over the rest of the academic year, AMP will be providing structured group information sessions with these high school students alongside weekly one-on-one conversations with mentors on topics like applying to, funding and succeeding in colleges across Arkansas. This program, currently in its pilot stage, hosts eight mentors and has more than 20 high school students registered.

Hank Herzfeld, the program's founder and current student administrator, is a senior from Benton who is studying history and political science.

Herzfeld said, "I'm thrilled to have created this program here at the University of Arkansas to help address a statewide gap in college access. I hope that our program will be successful for these students and that more near-peer models can be implemented across the state to put undergraduates in a position to help demystify the transition between high school and college, a change they have the most recent experience with."

Sarah Draine, the director of the College Access Initiative, says she is proud to work with Herzfeld and Vernita Wells at Little Rock Southwest High School to get AMP started.

"We've had a campus-based near-peer college advising program on our wish list of efforts for years," Draine said. "I was thrilled to meet Hank and join his efforts to create and pilot AMP and recruit and train undergraduate mentors, and I'm grateful to the in-school support that Ms. Wells and the administration of Little Rock Southwest have provided to us to connect and meet with students."

The Arkansas Mentorship Program is embedded in the College Access Initiative, the purpose of which is to provide outreach programming to Arkansas students and families to bridge the access gap to post-secondary education. To meet this need, the College Access Initiative works with schools and communities across the state of Arkansas to increase the college readiness of Arkansans by helping prospective students and families tour campus, prepare for the ACT, apply for U of A admissions and scholarships, learn about financial aid and beyond.

"Our team is proud of the long-term individual and collective impact of our work," Draine said. "Getting to meet students at pivotal moments in their pre-college days, being able to support their transition to college and ultimately providing a 'home away from home,' where they are seen, heard and cared for on the University of Arkansas campus via the Multicultural Center space and staff is rewarding, fulfilling and necessary. The AMP program is a wonderful addition to this work, and I'm confident it will make a positive difference in the lives of the participants as they matriculate to college."

The Arkansas Mentorship Program would not have been possible without support beyond the Multicultural Center, so we express gratitude for the continued endorsement of the program from Chancellor Charles Robinson, Vice Chancellor Jeremy Battjes, Suzanne McCray and Trevor Francis, as well as their teams.