Twice each week Victoria Bencomo calls the high school students she is mentoring to see if life and school are going well.

“I check in with them to see if they’re doing OK, studying, finishing their senior project, and if they are pursuing scholarships. They know they have someone at RCC who cares about helping them. We have a good connection,” she said.

Bencomo is one of 11 Rogue Community College students participating in the Oregon Leadership Institute. The project, new to RCC this year, is presented in conjunction with the Oregon Council for Hispanic Leadership.

The RCC students are mentoring 24 high schoolers from Phoenix, South Medford and Eagle Point. During a series of Saturday “academy” classes they work to help the younger students build leadership traits such as facilitation, networking, resource development, and assessing community needs as well as exploring cultural heritage.

“It would absolutely have been helpful to have this program while I was in high school,” added Bencomo. A graduate of South Medford High School, she will transfer next year to University of Texas in El Paso and study communication.

“We let the high school students know they are as capable and have the same opportunities as everyone else,” said Rosalina Peterson, who plans to be a physician’s assistant. “A lot of them don’t know about opportunities like financial aid and scholarships. Or they don’t know that there are a lot of Hispanics students here. RCC is a warm place to come for education.”

For Shareen Fiol the best part of teaching the leadership classes has been seeing what a difference building a bond between Latino college and high school students can make.

“Students who weren’t planning to attend college say now they are going to because of their relationship with mentors,” said Fiol, a transitions specialist at Riverside Campus.

Assisting Fiol are Serena Ota St. Clair, director of Discovery Programs, and Adult Basic Education instructors Kiersta Fricke-Gostnell and Liz Sempertegui. Nancy Vaughn, director of ABE in Jackson County, was a catalyst for bringing the program to RCC.

Leadership students, many of whom belong to RCC’s Club Latino, are responsible for planning two education conferences. The one for regional high schoolers-- Educación, Un Mundo de Oportunidades --drew 200 students, and a conference for parents is planned. Participants are also surveying the community for needs that can be developed into a service-learning project. Currently they are working with the City of Medford on painting a mural on an exterior wall of G Building at Riverside Campus.

A graduation ceremony for leadership participants is planned at RVC for May 26.

“The potential for Latino students here at Rogue is tremendous and this is one of those bridges that can make it happen,” Fiol added.