VALDOSTA – Mentors are needed to be paired with students eighth through twelfth grades for the REACH Scholars.

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Valdosta City Schools is seeking mentors from the community to be paired with REACH (Realizing Educational Achievement Can Happen) Scholars. Mentors are needed for student participants in eighth through twelfth grades.

Description automatically generated Community members are invited to apply to be a mentor and to have a positive impact on the lives of REACH Scholar students. REACH Georgia is the State of Georgia’s first needs-based mentorship and college scholarship program, launched in 2012 as a key component of the state’s Complete College Georgia Initiative. REACH Georgia’s mission is to ensure that Georgia’s low income, academically promising students have the academic, social, and financial support needed to graduate from high school, access college, and achieve postsecondary success.

Locally, in eighth grade, selected REACH Scholar students make a commitment to maintain a 2.5 GPA, remain crime, drug, and behavior-issue free, and meet with a volunteer mentor and academic coach until they graduate from high school. Each Scholar who graduates high school having met all program requirements receives a scholarship of up to $10,000 to be used towards the cost of attendance while enrolled full-time at a HOPE-eligible postsecondary institution in the state of Georgia.

Mentors play a critical role in ensuring student success. These volunteers commit to spending a minimum of one hour per month with their assigned mentee to ensure that they have the necessary academic and social support in order to achieve their post-secondary goals.

To volunteer to become a mentor, please visit: Valdosta City Schools REACH Scholars Mentor Application (google.com). To ensure student safety, all mentors must submit to a fingerprint background check. If you have questions about the VCS REACH Scholar program, please contact Mrs. Beth DeLoach at bdeloach@gocats.org.