The Women’s Resource Center recently introduced Sister to Sister, a new mentoring program that aims to help non-traditional female students on campus, including veterans, first generation students and women of color.
Sister to Sister is sponsored by the WRC’s Empowerment Project, and Project Coordinator Tonya Jones is currently working on finalizing the program.
Jones is part of the retention program through AmeriCorps, a federal program that encourages leadership and volunteerism in communities. It is a requirement for Jones to start a mentor program where she is stationed: the WRC.
The Empowerment Projects provides services such as drop-in advising, skill building, resource referral and community college outreach to prepare students transferring to Portland State.
According to Jones, some of the students toward which Sister to Sister is oriented have been out of school for 30 or more years. This program, therefore, will give them validation that returning to school is the right path.
The program’s goal is to have a support system for these students.
“We want to give returning students a support system so they don’t feel isolated,” Jones said. “We want to provide a community.”
The WRC is currently hiring mentors. Two recruitment sessions were held last Friday and Saturday, during which potential mentors were given information about what the job entailed and what kind of commitment to expect. Jones’ goal is to pair up mentors and mentees and have them meet once per week.
The mentors will go through several training days that will teach them what these students might be going through, and how they can help. According to Jones, the WRC recruited 10 possible mentors during the recruiting session, most of whom are faculty and returning students.
However, Jones is still looking for more volunteers, and urges students to contact her at rwp@pdx.edu for more information.
After Jones has recruited volunteers, she will turn her focus to letting the public know about the program. ?