G-Force, a mentorship organization at WTAMU recently got a $200,000 funding renewal. The funding was granted to the program for the next two years and serves the purpose of providing two years of salaries for G-Force team members to supplement their financial aid.
“The funding was made possible by the Texas Legislature who directed the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to fund mentoring projects,” Julie Arias, executive director of University Outreach, said. “The funding program is called the Texas Work Study Mentorship Program.”
WT’s program is known as G-Force. In 2009 there was a grant competition in which partners throughout the Panhandle convince Coordinating Board that mentors were needed to encourage college-going in our area explained Arias. According to Arias, WT was awarded the program and year after year they have met and exceeded every goal, which is why they continue to get funding.
“The funding is able to keep promoting education,” G-Force mentor Mariela Mendoza, senior math education major, said. “And it allows us to help students with the college process.”
G-Force mentors are WT students who go to local high schools and help out students with the FAFSA process, applying for scholarship and any questions they have regarding college.
“These WT students help prove that college is possible,” Arias said. “They encourage, guide and provide assistance.”
G-Force members have also expressed how much G-Force personally helped them when they were still in high school.
“There are a lot of parents that tell us they are glad there is a program to guide them in the college application steps,” G-Force mentor Tania Fuentes, sophomore criminal justice major, said. “G-Force helped me when I was in high school. I didn’t really have an idea of how to do anything until I went to them for help,” Fuentes said.
G-Force stands for a gravitational force toward the positive and has been helping students in the area with the college application process since 2004.
“Our G-Force students, simply put, are the fresh faces of the millennium,” Sharee Lowe, executive assistant of the College Talent Search Program, said. “[They are] college-goers who shine for the next generation of students who never believed college was attainable to them.”
