Spartan alumni empowering and mentoring Black students

<p>Two Spartan alumni are working to empower Black students in Michigan through mentoring and leadership development. Ongoing mentoring relationships have a powerful impact on young people. Research shows that students who have mentors in their lives are 55 percent more likely to enroll in college and 130 percent more likely to hold leadership positions in the future.<br> <br><a href="https://twitter.com/rhondawalker"> Rhonda Walker</a> is a 1991 graduate of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, and Detroiters may know her as the co-anchor of the weekday morning newscast at WDIV Local 4 News, Detroit's NBC affiliate.<br> <br> Off-camera, Rhonda is the founder of <a href="https://rhondawalkerfoundation.org/">Rhonda Walker Foundation</a>, an organization that works to empower inner city teen girls toward becoming strong and successful future leaders. The foundation's mentoring program boasts a 100 percent high school graduation and college enrollment rate.<br> <br> Walker says she was inspired to start her foundation by the young people she would meet when guest speaking at schools in Detroit.<br> <br> “I started realizing that you really can't change much in one conversation with children,” Walker says. “You have to have sustainable conversations featuring empowering messaging and expose the girls to resources and mentoring so they can see other professional women, particularly for these teen girls, that they can aspire to become.”<br> <br> Ideally, believes Walker, a mentor should be someone outside one’s family.<br> <br> “It's a new voice that's able to provide you guidance from a different perspective. And it's also attention. When you're mentoring a teen girl, you're showing that she's important, that her interests and her concerns are important to you, and that you're taking your personal time to give that child attention. That means a lot. It’s the personal attention, and it's also the positive messages, guidance, and support for the parents. <br> <br> “Sometimes someone outside of your fa