Mentoring Program Empowers Student Leaders

For senior Jessica Nguyen, UC Merced has fueled more than academic preparedness — it has sparked her fervent interest in civic leadership.

Nguyen has been involved in the Women’s Program’s Lift While You Lead mentoring network for the past two years. The goal is to increase high school graduation rates and post-secondary admission rates for local high school students by emphasizing the importance and need for support of women in leadership.

“This program has allowed me to grow as a leader, and I have gained so many new and different perspectives because of my mentees,” she said.

Through small-group mentoring, UC Merced students work biweekly with students at Buhach Colony High School in Atwater and Yosemite High School in Merced who are enrolled in their high school’s Sociology of Gender, the Role of Women in Society, or U.S. History class taught by Annie Delgado.

While Nguyen and the other 30 mentors are not guidance counselors, she said they help mentees consider all of their available options.

“We go into a classroom and we begin a mentor-and-mentee relationship that could potentially lead them through their last year as a high school student,” said Nguyen, an English major who plans to work for a nonprofit organization after graduating this month. “We are able to guide our students through many topics like social issues, current events and personal struggles.”

This relationship fosters support, guidance and encouragement — with an emphasis on empowerment, leadership and education.

Lift While You Lead mentors hosted their first conference in April. The conference’s theme, “Empower Me,” helped to inspire local high school students to realize and reach their full potential.

“We hope this conference helps the students find their voice and use it to propel themselves into a future that they deserve,” Nguyen said. “It gives the students an opportunity to get out of their comfort zones and build upon themselves.”

Nhi Le, a biological sciences major who has been in the program since 2014, said being a mentor has helped her hone her leadership skills and look at topics from a new angle.

“Lift While You Lead helped me gain fresh perspectives on different topics and gave me a chance to become more open-minded,” Le said. “I not only share my experiences and insights, but the students also open up my eyes with their opinions as well.”

This year, AT&T supported the program with a $50,000 donation, bringing its total campus support to more than $1 million.

“Lift While You Lead is a truly innovative mentorship program that teaches the importance of women in leadership,” said Julie Tone, AT&T’s director of external affairs. “AT&T is proud to support those mentors and mentees who remind us the power of collaboration and collective impact.”

With support from AT&T and others, the long-range plan is to expand Lift While You Lead to El Capitan High School in Merced and to develop the network to include professionals in the local area to serve as mentors to the UC Merced students, and high school students to mentor students in middle school.