UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 4, Page D-3
September 22, 1994
Diversity
Mentoring program in place for new African-American students

     Forty upperclass students in good academic standing were selected
to participate in a new mentoring program for entering African-
American freshman and transfer students.
     Sponsored by the Center for Black Culture and the Office of
Affirmative Action and Multicultural Programs, the program is designed
to provide academic and social support through bonding with peers.
     Prior to the start of the program, student mentors spent three
days in intensive training.
     More than 80 African-American students participated in the four-
day program, which began Friday evening, Sept. 2, and concluded with a
Labor Day picnic on Monday, Sept. 5.
     Lenworth Gunther, who has taught at a number of New Jersey
colleges and universities and who is currently president of EdMedia
Associates, his consulting firm, was the keynote speaker at the Sunday
evening banquet. Gunthur shared with the audience his thoughts about
responsibility, order, attitude, discipline and spirituality (ROADS)-
the five underlying principles of the new mentoring program, "Each
One, Reach One."
     In addition, Gunthur emphasized that the students' ancestral
roots involved a strong sense of community. He encouraged students to
retain that concept throughout their undergraduate careers.
     That theme was central to the program's closing ceremony, when
each student selected a small piece of kente cloth indicating his or
her commitment to the program. The kente cloth symbolizes group unity
and each student was asked to display the cloth in a visible place. In
so doing, the students committed themselves to providing one another
with advice, respect and friendship.