Next Level Mentoring Program, Inc.

Newsroom

Black Adults Make Time to Guide Teens to Map Future, Pick College

By Karen Gutiérrez Enquirer staff writer

EDUCATION

Dana Carter wanted her teenage son to have African-American role models other than
basketball players and rap stars.

She found what she was seeking through the Next Level mentoring program.

"He can see black men doing things here in Boone County," said Carter, whose son,
Dalan, is in ninth grade at Dixie Heights High School. Through Next Level, he meets
once a week with his mentor, Darrell Carter, founder and chief engineer of
Carter-Serengenti Racing, a car-design firm.

"I think that relationship has helped him mature," said Dana Carter, no relation to
Darrell.

That's one of the goals behind Next Level, created in 2003 by Walter and Cicely
Ingram, African-American engineers in Florence.

Through their church, First Baptist of Elsmere, they had met black teen-agers who
seemed to lack plans for the future. They created Next Level in part to help them
become more purposeful.

This school year, about 20 students were paired with African-American professionals
from throughout Northern Kentucky. The pairs met once a week to discuss preparation
for college.

The program includes monthly workshops on communication skills, time management,
black history and the like. Next Level participants also tour historically black
colleges.

"I tell my kids all the time, it doesn't mean you need to go to that school; it's
just giving you all the data,' said Walter Ingram, who earned his undergraduate
degree from a historically black school in North Carolina but attended graduate
school at the University of Michigan.

Next Level works with local high schools, asking guidance counselors to recommend
students. It focuses on suburban schools, which seem to have the fewest resources
geared to black students, Walter Ingram said.

Ashley Patterson, a senior at Lloyd Memorial High School, said she's learned a lot
through Next Level. The college tour introduced her to Kentucky State University,
where she'll start this fall on a full scholarship. Her mentor, Cicely Ingram,
helped her research the pros and cons of nursing versus physical therapy, she said.

"You know how your parents are always, 'You have to do this, you have to do that,' "
Ashley said. "Miss Cicely was more of a friend and mentor type."

E-mail kgutierrez@nky.com

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