Local mentorship program takes teens on college campus tour

OVER-THE-RHINE (Brad Underwood) - Making the right choices can sometimes be hard for young people but there's some help for local teens.

For more than a decade volunteers with the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission have been mentoring children.

By showing them places outside the city and introducing them to people outside Cincinnati hundreds of teens are getting exposure the world outside of what they know. Forty students from various Cincinnati schools spent an entire day at Morehead State University for another round of college visits.

"Today just like opened my mind up to think about different scholarships I can get, the different places I can go and the different things I can do," said Derrick Jones a junior at Aiken High School.

The Trip to Morehead Kentucky was organized through the Future Ambassadors program of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission and the Wesley Chapel.

The program and these types of trips focus on keeping kids thinking about and succeed in school so they can achieve anything they put their mind to.

"It helps me make who I am, I think it's because of them my self-esteem is high and I love it that I'm around people who can help me," said Ayanna Harris, a 6th grade Hays Porter student.

This wasn't the first college visit for Kiarah Garnett as she's getting herself for college in two years.

"I know some kids don't have opportunities like this so I think this is a really good opportunity for me to get a head start in things and get familiar with college experiences," said Garnett.

During the visit the group met football players, saw the dorms and even had lunch with current students and got tours of various departments on campus.

Dorron Hunter see's the violence in the city too often. You may have seen him at a shooting scene or vigil. But Hunter is even harder at work when it comes to mentoring kids and giving them the tools to achieve all their goals.

"I realize that somebody gave me an opportunity once, so every chance I get to take the kids out of the neighborhood, show them something different, let them realize if you make the right choices, surround yourself with the right people and continue to do school work and make good grades, that's the way to be successful in life," said Hunter.

There are future visits scheduled to Michigan State and another Morehead State next fall. On April 6th members of the Cincinnati Police Department and community leaders will be speaking to students at Taft High School about making the right choices in life.

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