The students of the Richland Chapter of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars have partnered with Refugee Services of Texas and the Richland College Honors Academy to offer a small pilot program this fall to provide mentoring to students who are interested in coming to Richland. This fall there are five mentors and five mentees. Richland mentors will be guiding potential students through the application, testing, and advising processes.

In collaboration with Refugee Services of Texas, Richland chapter of NSCS has started a project to help refugees through the admission process. This includes advising, admission, registration, financial aid and scholarship applications.

Advising includes: Providing financial aid and scholarship information, resources available in college for instance; library, learning center, computer lab, career center, etc.

We have started with mentoring 4 refugees from Cuba, Palestine and Myanmar, for which 4 volunteers are committing at least 2 hours of their time each week in November 2015 and then in February and March, 2016.

Plan:

  • One on one mentoring (Richland College students mentor refugees.)
  • Mentoring in November, February and March or until need be.
  • Helping them through the whole process by taking out at least 2 hours each week from Monday to Thursday, between 8 am to 5 pm, or on Friday between 8 am to 12 pm, and be with them during the whole process. Also, be available to them 24/7 via email, and respond within 24 hours.

Incentives:

  • Service hours.
  • Letter of recognition from Refugee services of Texas.
  • Leadership & service experience.
  • Letter of Recommendation if they need when applying for any scholarship.

We’re so proud of these students! If you’d like to get involved or have a great story to share at your chapter, let us know in the comments section!! Or tweet us @NSCS.