UA Students Sponsor Mentoring, College-Prep Program at Local High School

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama Student Government Association (SGA) is providing a mentoring program at Central High School’s East Campus that began this week in Tuscaloosa.

“We chose to start this program because it is important for college students to help teen-agers with tough decisions they have to make during high school,” UA SGA President Jon Macklem said.

Central’s senior guidance counselor Tonya Mills has made announcements notifying the high school students to register for the free program. Any high school student planning to take the ACT or SAT is welcome to participate.

Candace Pearson, UA’s SGA lobbying board representative, said the University students will teach the high school students to utilize their study efforts and improve their test scores. The SGA’s community outreach committee and other interested SGA members are participating in the mentoring program.

This session will be held until Feb. 27 in Central’s library from 3:30-4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The SGA will hold mentoring sessions throughout the school year before the ACT and SAT testing dates.

“We thought by doing the mentoring program we could create a better relationship between the University students and the Central High School students,” Pearson said.

Mills said most high school students feel comfortable with the University students.

The mentoring program was available for high school seniors last December. Mills said she feels more students will participate now that the program is open to juniors and seniors.

The University’s SGA recently purchased more than $400 worth of ACT and SAT preparation software by Princeton Review for Central High School. The software will soon be installed on Central’s computer network so all the teachers and students will have access to the material.

“Some prep classes can be $500 or $600 and that’s just not feasible for some students, so this is a real blessing,” Mills said.

Macklem said the SGA may expand the program to the entire county of Tuscaloosa.