VGCC Male Mentees Visit Washington, D.C.
Nine students involved in the Male Mentoring program at Vance-Granville Community College visited Washington, D.C., in September for an exciting educational tour of our nation’s capital. This event was part of the Historical Cultural Bus Tour that is sponsored by the Raleigh/Wake Martin Luther King Committee. The VGCC group’s trip was made possible by funding from the Male Mentoring Grant awarded annually by the N.C. Community College System Office.
The mentees who went on the trip were Christopher Ford, Bradley Gooch, Raekwon Hall, Lynn Henderson, Keyante Lindsey, Benjamin Marshall, Alycone Moore, Jerry Pierce, and Scott Rucker. They were accompanied by Male Mentoring Co-Coordinators Greg Nash and Anthony Pope. “This trip was an amazing opportunity for our young men to expand their horizons outside of their county and state,” Pope said. “For a few of our mentees, this was the first time that they had been to Washington.”
Upon arrival in Washington, the first stop was the White House. “It was absolutely breathtaking to see some of the rooms that up to this time you had only seen on TV, in a book or a magazine,” Pope recalled. The VGCC group’s next stop was the African American Civil War Museum, where they saw historical artifacts and other items dating back hundreds of years. They proceeded from there to take a dinner riverboat cruise on the “Spirit of Washington,” a spacious boat that accommodated over 600 passengers. “The mentees really enjoyed this part of the trip, which included an open-air top deck,” Pope said. “We enjoyed a wonderful meal, great music, and a three-hour cruise around the D.C. harbor area.”
An early rise on Saturday morning started with breakfast, and then off to the Smithsonian Museums, the Martin Luther King National Monument, and a bus tour of the area around the National Mall.
“The atmosphere in D.C. is always exciting and alive with people from everywhere just taking in all of the culture of the city,” said Pope. “From there, we proceeded to Union Station for lunch and relaxation before preparing to get back on the road trip back home. What an awesome adventure!”
The Male Mentoring program at VGCC supports the educational and professional aspirations of male students through an active, intensive, and engaging process of academic coaching and case management. The goals of the program are to keep participating students in school, to increase their graduation rate and to increase their rate of transferring to four-year colleges and universities. For more information, contact Anthony Pope at (252) 738-3395.
Above: The VGCC Male Mentoring group enjoyed a riverboat cruise in Washington, D.C. Kneeling in front are Male Mentoring co-coordinators Anthony Pope and Greg Nash; standing in back, from left, are students Scott Rucker of Henderson, Bradley Gooch of Oxford, Jerry Pierce of Stem, Christopher Ford of Manson, Keyante Lindsey of Oxford, Lynn Henderson of Henderson, Raekwon Hall of Raleigh, Benjamin Marshall of Butner and Alcyone Moore of Charlotte.
