A pilot electronic mentoring project is matching Eastern Kentucky University students with approximately 150 at-risk students at five Kentucky middle schools.

On a regular basis throughout the school year, the middle schoolers log in to a secure Blackboard virtual classroom to interact with EKU students who have been trained to discuss with the younger students the college preparation process and the importance of setting educational and career goals.

Participating schools are Wolfe County Middle School, Clay County Middle School, Two Rivers Middle School in Covington, Mayfield Middle School in Graves County, and Leestown Middle School in Fayette County. The project, administered by EKU’s College of Education, is part of GEAR UP II Kentucky, an early intervention program designed to raise awareness about the importance of postsecondary education. With the assistance of Bob Fortney, senior consultant at Kentucky Virtual Schools, the Blackboard classroom is made available through the Kentucky Department of Education.

“This program is very innovative and has great potential to influence students’ attitudes toward the possibility of college attendance,” said Cindy McIntosh, guidance counselor at Mayfield Middle School. “The personal contact students have with their mentor is a perfect opportunity for our students to ask those questions that they may not be comfortable asking adults. Most of us adults who have completed college tend to talk the lingo of college without considering the very basic, simplistic issues that middle school students need to understand.

“Also, many of the mentors are able to share their personal stories of obstacles they had to overcome in order to work toward a college education. We hope that our students can develop the persistence and goal-setting behaviors required to achieve such long-term goals.”

EKU’s on-line mentoring project is part of a federal program funded through the Council on Postsecondary Education that involves approximately 50 middle schools throughout Kentucky and six other educational institutions.

In the EKU project, weekly online mentoring exercises focus on self-awareness, choosing a college, paying for college, campus life, career exploration, the world of work, and other topics that address Vocational Studies Core Content.

The exercises “have been designed to show students how postsecondary education will affect their lives later,” said Angela Corey, an EKU mentor.

The online environment is “certainly more relevant to these technology-literate middle school students,” said Dr. Carol Gabbard, project manager at EKU. “It allows the mentors to serve as adult role models for the students, while the students are online learning and having fun.”

Gabbard said research indicates that the middle school years are when students “decide whether college is a possibility for them. We want to reach those students who have almost turned school off because they think they’re not going to college.”

Twenty EKU undergraduate mentors with a variety of academic majors are trained in all aspects of the program, and undergo a thorough background check and confidentiality training. Each mentor is responsible for establishing an online relationship and for evaluating the progress of five to seven middle school students. Gabbard and Susan Pennington at EKU monitor the online conversations.

“There’s no reason why this model couldn’t be developed at any level,” Gabbard said. “We will be marketing this concept to other universities around the state.”

Gear Up Kentucky II is administered by the CPE and supported by a $21 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.