Damarius Monroe thought he was just going to walk into college and walk out with a degree. It was only once he took a few classes and settled in that he realized college was not as easy as he thought.

“I thought it was going to be a breeze,” he says. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do once I got here and realized that this was going to be harder than I had anticipated.”

It was then, Monroe found a resource that would take him from a place of uncertainty and potentially unmet goals to solidly entrench him onto a career path that he had long dreamed of. Monroe joined the Minority Male Mentoring Program at Sampson Community College. The program, offered through the North Carolina Community College System, is designed to strengthen minority male student outcomes by encouraging participation and collaboration among student participants and institutional departments.

“This gives young male students who might face uphill battles or believe that they do, a chance,” says Cornelius Lindsey. “Damarius was one of those young students. I feel that when he came to us that he was a little unsure of what exactly it was he planned to do. Now, his focus has become clear and he is on his way. I believe the Minority Male Mentoring Program helped him with that.”

Lindsey (L) and Monroe, standing next to him, join others at a conference earlier this year.

The NCCCS says the program works because there is a focus on increasing student success, maximizing student and campus participation and increasing program effectiveness and efficiency. The purpose is to address and increase the progression and completion rates of minority male students.

Monroe, who finished his degree at SCC, has now transferred to Winston-Salem State University. He is majoring in Sports management with a concentration in Sports Marketing. “I think that it is up to you to decide how you are going to turn something you never expected to happen into a blessing,” he says. “I did it and a lot of the credit goes to the program. I am not perfect, but I wanted something bad enough and I did not stop until I got where I needed to be.”

For more information regarding the program at SCC, contact Lindsey at clindsey@sampsoncc.edu or at 910.900.4408.