Paulin Cheatham
As a newly minted graduate from the University of Virginia, Paulin Cheatham was one of the first mentors dispatched by the College Advising Corps to help underserved students reach their postsecondary education goals. He showed up at Bassett High School in rural Henry County, Virginia, with a typical do-gooder attitude.
“I wanted to help people,” he says. “Little did I know how much it would impact me.”
In the popular view, post-graduate volunteerism is what a kid does for a year or two while figuring out what to do next. For Cheatham, it wasn’t that at all. He discovered a calling that ran straight through Bassett High School.
It’s there that he met and mentored students like Autumn Clark, who was in his office almost every day. For years her parents had talked to her about the value of college and the importance of scholarships, but they “didn’t know how to help me attain those scholarships,” she says.
Cheatham encouraged Autumn to apply to her dream school, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, even though she “didn’t feel confident” that she would get in. He helped her with the application process and provided “that boost of confidence to put my best foot forward and go for it,” says Autumn, who has since married and is now known as Autumn Morris. She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from UNC in 2010.
Advising and mentoring students turned out to be “the best job I ever had,” Cheatham says. “Without that experience, I’m not sure I would have even considered doing … what I’m doing today.”
Cheatham works in advertising and public relations for Dominion Resources, a large electric utility in Virginia. His job involves a lot of public interaction and speaking ― precisely the kinds of activities he shrank from as a new college graduate.
Being a mentor forced him to take risks. He gave a presentation at a national conference and shared his experience as a CAC adviser with directors of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. That meeting helped CAC land a $10 million grant.
“I went into it (mentoring) thinking: ‘This is going to be great. I’ll help get people off to college and help set them up to have success later in life.’ It wasn’t about me,” says Cheatham.
But it was. It turns out that helping those students “really helped me,” Cheatham says. “Looking back, it’s been incredibly helpful.”
Jessica Stokes
You can’t talk about the long-term benefits of Ernst & Young’s College Mentoring for Access and Persistence mentoring program without talking to Jessica Stokes. A strategist in EY’s tax department, Stokes was part of the Boston pilot program. Since then, College MAP has expanded to more than 20 cities, generating benefits that accrue to high schools, students and mentors alike, she says.
“I know I’m changing lives,” Stokes says. “This is the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done.”
The firm’s volunteer mentoring work at Boston’s Madison Park Technical Vocational High School has led EY to identify other ways it can help a secondary institution that is “extremely at risk,” Stokes says. We’ve “deepened our relationship with the headmaster and guidance counselors, and more and more people at Madison Park know we are committed to helping them beyond the 40 students in the College MAP program.”
The initiative is providing lasting benefits, Stokes says. One Madison Park graduate, Maguida DaSilva, had “a very low grade point average” when she sought assistance. With the help of the program’s mentors, Maguida raised her GPA by a full point. Now in her first year of college at UMass Dartmouth, she is close to having a “B” average. “There are at least five or 10 kids in college right now that I’m sure wouldn’t be there without College MAP, and I had a part in that,” Stokes says.
The College MAP program has influenced Stokes, personally and professionally. On the job, the mentoring program opened up networking opportunities and the chance to have a “pretty visible leadership role. … It’s another venue by which I get to build my personal brand at the firm,” she says. “It’s not the reason I do it, but it is a nice byproduct of my participation.”
Away from the office, mentors benefit in other ways. A former employee leveraged her status as an alum of the company to continue serving as a College MAP mentor.
“My closest friendships at the firm are with people I’ve met through the College MAP program,” Stokes says. “It has absolutely changed my world view.”
Maria Prestigiacomo
One of the first things Maria Prestigiacomo did after transferring to EY’s San Francisco office was to get involved in the local chapter of the company’s signature youth mentoring program. “It was easy to assimilate and meet people quickly because of College MAP,” says Prestigiacomo, who became a mentor five years ago while working in EY’s Boston office.
Back then she had been a shy, young employee at a sprawling multinational professional services firm. She volunteered to be a mentor because “I needed an avenue to connect with people outside my normal job, and this gave me a sense of fulfillment,” she says.
The program’s mission — helping underserved students to succeed in college — struck a chord with Prestigiacomo. Her parents, Italian immigrants, had “emphasized education when I was growing up,” she says. “I feel strongly about the College MAP program.”
The young women whom Prestigiacomo mentors are like family members. Her first mentee, Jessica Diaz, was a self-conscious high school junior when the pair started working together. Prestigiacomo helped Diaz with college admissions tests and applications, including her college essay. “It was very inspiring to read it and have her open up a part of her life that she hadn’t shared with many people,” Prestigiacomo says. “I became very close with her.”
Diaz is in the nursing program at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, returning occasionally to her high school to make presentations on behalf of the College MAP program. “She has grown into a wonderful young woman who is much different from the girl I met when she was 17,” Prestigiacomo says.
Meanwhile, Prestigiacomo has evolved into a confident, well-connected career woman. She credits College MAP with helping her acquire professional skills and build relationships across the firm. “Having to work on a (mentoring) team sets you up for working well in teams in your 9-to-5 job,” she says.
As a young professional, Prestigiacomo “would get nervous” when making presentations,” she says. “Now it comes naturally.”
Tamiko Kamara
Ignorance of the college-going process is a trap for underserved students whose ill-informed decisions can worsen already trying circumstances.
Joelle DeLagarde was on the verge of falling into the trap when she met her mentor, Tamiko Kamara, a vice president at Morgan Stanley. The financial services firm is a partner of the iMentor program, which at the time was helping students at DeLagarde’s Brooklyn high school.
When the pair met, DeLagarde, a junior at the time, had her heart set on attending the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, to the exclusion of other institutions. In DeLagarde’s eyes, UNCC was perfect. It was far from home — yet she had a grandparent who lived near the campus.
Kamara understood the desire to get away. A native of Queens, she had left New York to attend Fisk University, in Nashville. She did so without understanding the financial challenges that would result from studying at a costly private institution. Kamara suggested that a broader search would benefit DeLagarde, who ultimately applied to 16 institutions. She was accepted by all but two of them, including UNCC.
In the end, she accepted an offer from SUNY Pottsdam, which provided a generous scholarship. “I helped her get into a college she could afford,” Kamara says.
The story didn’t end there.
A few days before DeLagarde was to have started classes at SUNY Pottsdam, a dispute between her divorced parents imperiled the financial contribution the young woman was counting on. Kamara helped her make alternate plans. At the last minute, DeLagarde’s parents resolved their differences — and their daughter’s financial crisis. (DeLagarde says she wants to be a mentor someday and “give a student the generosity [my mentor] has shown me.”)
At college, she encountered a common first-year problem: the roommate. The young woman snored, and her boyfriend was a frequent visitor. DeLagarde, an only child who suffers from insomnia, couldn’t sleep. “I was really stressed out,” says DeLagarde, who wanted to come home. With the support of her mentor, she persevered. “She said, ‘I know you’re strong. You’ll get through this,’” DeLagarde says. “She always gives me another perspective.”
Kamara says working with DeLagarde has had an effect on her, as well. “I’m a more well-rounded person. She shares so much of her life and culture with me,” Kamara says. During a recent college break, they attended an art exhibit together at the Brooklyn Museum.
Being a mentor “helps me in so many ways,” Kamara says. “When it comes time for my daughter to apply to schools, I’ll be ready.”
