LGBTQA Mentors Program connects students with mentors

Shannon McMullen/Staff Writer

FIU offers a multitude of programs for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community—one of them being the LGBTQA Mentors Program.

To enroll in the program, students must fill out an online application and attend a networking event in which they can meet potential mentors—who are typically faculty and staff.  The mentors, who identify as LGBTQA, are paired with a student who also identifies under the acronym, according to Gisela Vega, associate director for LGBTQA Initiatives.

“The LGBTQA Mentors program was started five years ago, and its purpose is to provide support, help retain, and eventually help our LGBTQ students graduate,” said Vega.

In the Mentors Program, students are required to complete a service project each semester. This last semester Vega said mentors and mentees partnered with ambassadors and volunteered at Lambda Living, a senior facility for LGBT people. The group cleaned and prepped the apartments while helping  the senior citizens move in.

Most students stay in the program for the entirety of their tenure at FIU.

“There’s three students graduating this year, and they’ve been in the program since its inception,” Vega said.

She also said there have been mentees who are now alumni and want to give back.

Richard Moreno is a second-year masters student in higher education and administration program. He’s also one of the program’s mentors. He became a mentor because he wanted to give back to students, and said advocating for a marginalized population was a passion he grew from working with the LGBTQ community.

“I just love mentorship. I love connecting with students and providing them with different resources and helping them in their journey,” he said.  

One of the resources the Mentors Program provides is helping students with their academic interests.

Moreno said if there was a student who studied medicine, and if there was a full time faculty or staff member involved in said area, the program would match them together so that the mentor could help the mentee academically.

But the program also helps with issues that go beyond academics.

“A lot of our students have issues with family and have other issues with coming out, so it’s really good to have an identifiable person that we match them with to help them with that transition,” Moreno said.

Unfortunately, Vega said LGBTQ students are often times one of the most marginalized groups in today’s society, and that 40 percent of homeless youth identify as LGBT.

However, that’s exactly why the Mentors Program is needed as it’s crucial to make sure LGBTQ students have somebody to talk to, according to Moreno.

“By becoming part of the mentors program, [students are] not just gaining a mentor, but gaining a community. You connect with other people who may be experiencing the same things you’re going through,” Vega said.

 

Feature Image retrieved from Flickr.