African American Mentor Program, or AAMP, is a tool provided by Bakersfield College to help African American students at BC stay in school and graduate with a degree.

AAMP had a meeting Sept. 1 with over 20 students attending and will continue to have meetings every other Friday at Levinson 40 from 10 a.m. to noon from Sept. 15 to Dec. 1. Free food and beverages were provided to students after a lecture explaining what AAMP was and how it can help students.

The meeting was held in an air conditioned room and was started by asking students what they think AAMP was and how it can benefit them.

One student answered this question by saying, “I feel like we [are] here to push the culture because a lot of stuff going on in the world, so we [are] here to bring each other [together].”

Most of the students that attended this event were athletes. Coach Reggie Bolton, was also there to help students that attended the meeting.

Coach Bolton was explaining that he knows how to fix them in the lecture that he participated in.

“African American men fix African American men. … I know how to fix you. I went through all the experiences you went through, so I know how to fix you and a lot of older African American men will tell you that. I can’t expect a Caucasian white man to fix you. He don’t know what it means to be black,” he said.

Kenneth Holmes, 18, said that his coaches told him about AAMP. Holmes is a receiver on the BC football team.

He said, “I learned that they’re bringing us a foundation in a way of a blueprint. They can only tell us so much. We kind of have to take initiative ourselves. They show us where things are at; we have to go get them ourselves.”