New Program Tailored to Diversity
EAST PEORIA — Starting Dec. 10, the Emerging Leaders Program, a new diversity retention and success program, will be active among Illinois Central College students.
The program is designed to give extra support to African American students in both their academic and personal lives. According to Rita Ali, ICC’s executive director of diversity, there is an approximate 15% gap between the success rate of African American students and all other students at ICC.
Ali attributes the gap in success rates to students’ previous educational experiences. “They need study skills and some additional discipline and support in order to be successful,” says Ali.
Each of the three newly hired Emerging Leaders advisors will monitor primarily the success of about 150 students with a GPA of 2.59 and lower, says Ali. They will encourage students to visit the help labs and to make the necessary connections with their instructors and academic advisors in order to be more successful during their time at ICC.
Advisors will contact each student who falls in the category, and it will be up to the individual student to participate. “Students who do choose to participate,” says Ali, “that will be their Emerging Leaders advisor, and really kind of a mentor.”
High school students from the traditional Peoria high schools Manual, Peoria High, and Richwoods, will also be in the interest of Emerging Leaders advisors. They will assist seniors who are interested in coming to ICC make the transition as smoothly as possible and start college on the right foot.
Each advisor will be given an iPhone so that they are always available if emergencies or important matters come up in a student’s life. “We want the advisors to help the students address personal issues as well as academic issues,” says Ali.
Hired advisors are Catherine Moore, Ericson Beck, Jolonda Young, all residents of Peoria. While unable to give any personal information about advisors at this time, Ali was able to say, “[The advisors] have a lot of energy. I think the students will relate well to them.”
The federal funds that are supporting Emerging Leaders will support the program for one year. Ali says everyone involved hopes funding will be filtered to ICC for this purpose again in years to come.