NFA West Campus Launches Mentoring Program with Mount Saint Mary College

Newburgh Free Academy, West Campus launched a mentoring program with Mount Saint Mary College. Coordinated by School Counselor, Ms. Lakeya Stukes and Associate Professor of Education, Dr. David Gallagher, each worked with students at their respective campuses to prepare for a successful mentoring program. Ms. Stukes and Dr. Gallagher hope for the program to bring a collaboration with literacy, equity, and learning, along with the usual benefits of mentoring. “This program is an effort to expand and ripple the learning community to learn from each other. We hope that this is the start of a very powerful experience for all of you.” 

Dr. Bixler, Division Chair and Professor in Education welcomed the students from NFA West for the evening and encouraged them to come back to campus often, even outside of the mentoring program.

There was a general call for volunteers on the MSMC campus and then a more targeted call to students who participate in the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP), the Black Student Union, and the Latino Student Union. The student mentors have gone through training and will be hosting weekly mentoring sessions with our high school students with topics ranging from life in general, transitioning from high school to college, with some activities that have an academic focus as well.

Three NFA alumni from the class of 2016, Giselle Martinez, Larry Arnold, and Harley Ramirez, who currently attend Mount St. Mary College, are volunteering as mentors and look forward to giving back to current NFA students. Mr. Ramirez hopes to be a math teacher at NFA after he’s finished at MSMC.

Ten students were selected from NFA, West Campus based on their hard work ethic, diligence, and academic achievements. Students were joined by their parents as part of the mission of NFA, West Campus to increase parental involvement as part of their Big Picture Learning program.

The students from MSMC represent a range of majors, offering a well-rounded view to our students. Some are majoring in education, however, others are majoring in nursing, pre-Med, and pre-Law.

ATTENTION: Are your scholars or colleagues doing something great? Please contact the district Communications Team at communications@necsd.net. We’d love to visit your class or event and/or post your pictures and recap to highlight the amazing accomplishments throughout our district!