PVAMU Student Success Initiative M.A.L.E. Brings Home the Gold

On August 10, 2018, the PVAMU M.A.L.E. Student Success Initiative received the inaugural Male Program of the Year Award for Universities during the annual Texas Male Leadership Summit at the University of Texas at Austin. M.A.L.E. or Men Achieving Leadership Excellence is a minority male mentoring program that was developed by Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) Leadership in 2013, with assistance from student interns. The overall mission of the program is to increase the male retention and graduation rates at PVAMU by helping minority male students gain the skills necessary to navigate and negotiate the challenges of higher education.

The initiative is set up as a multi-level mentoring program in which PVAMU administrators and other professionals mentor student leaders, who have been selected via a formal interview process, for one month during the first summer session. The mentees range from sophomores to graduate students and represent all majors offered by the university. Upon completion of self-awareness and mentor development training, the mentees become the mentors. The newly minted mentors are then commissioned to work during the second summer session with the PVAMU Panther Pride Summer Bridge program, a five-week summer program designed to onboard first time, full-time freshmen.

During the program, participants are expected to increase their knowledge and skills in the following areas: Time Management; Academic and Leadership Development; Building a Professional Profile; Branding and Social Media Use; How to Dress for Success, Financial Literacy; and Civic Responsibility. The M.A.L.E. initiative provides students with the opportunity to focus on their academic studies and improve the leadership skills that will then lead them to become better role models on campus and resilient in their academic pursuits, all in an effort to positively impacting the minority male retention and graduation rate through peer mentoring.

At the culmination of the program each summer, Dr. Michael L. McFrazier, Vice-President of Administration and Lead Administrative Mentor, leads the group of student mentors to attend the Texas Male Leadership Summit. The Texas Male Leadership Summit, hosted by the Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color (TECMSC), is an invite-only event for institutions that are members of the consortium. As indicated on the Consortium website, “the Summit will bring together emerging male student leaders of color, as well as faculty, staff, and administrators from K-12 and higher education institutions from across the state of Texas, who are dedicated to their academic and personal success.”