UNB Saint John mentoring program paying huge dividends
Author: Communications
Posted on Mar 21, 2011
Category: UNB Saint John
SAINT JOHN - When UNBSJ students come to Hazen-White/St. Francis School to visit their young peers, they see a prospective university scholar in every eager face.
Their issue is poverty of opportunity, not of brains," says city councillor Peter McGuire.
"These are bright and really good kids."
McGuire is community engagement facilitator, vice-president's office, UNBSJ and, under his leadership, university academic mentors have grown from 25 to 150 in just a year and a half.
"Every child in this school has a UNBSJ academic mentor," McGuire said.
"We're here every afternoon."
UNB president Eddy Campbell has been hearing so many good things about the program that's based on his satellite campus that he came from Fredericton to check it out.
"I'm so proud that we're able to help out in this way. I've heard some great things about the outcomes that the program has produced on literacy skills, for example. It's really exciting.
"It's a model of the way we want to have an impact on the communities around us," he said. "There's just under 12,000 students at both campuses. That's an awful lot of people who are able to make a difference."
Read the full story in the Telegraph-Journal.