Frequently Asked Questions

A BAC mentee is a student of Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) who has applied and been accepted to become a member of the BAC mentorship program. The BAC mentee is matched with a mentor (Tri-C staff or faculty member) who guides and supports the student/mentee during their educational pursuits at Tri-C. Throughout the mentorship program, we assist students on a one-on-one basis, offer resources and encourage them to graduate. Often these mentoring relationships continue past graduation and last for a lifetime. Apply here to become a BAC mentee.

As a member of the BAC, we will assign a mentor (staff or faculty member) to you. Once assigned, we ask that you work with your mentor to build a connection to help you thrive as a student. The BAC Mentee Toolkit was created to guide you each semester as you work with your mentor. BAC mentees are required to be active in campus life. In order to be eligible for a graduation stole and BAC scholarships, mentees must attend at least three mandatory BAC events each academic year.

You do not have to be Black to be a mentee or to serve as a mentor. We work with everyone regardless of race, color or ethnicity to make sure students have the tools they need to succeed academically and personally.

The only requirement to be a mentor is the willingness to help develop the career of a mentee.

• Mentors meet in person or virtually with their mentees to actively listen, guide, train, build trust and promote the student’s career development.
• A mentor’s main purpose is to help mentees define their individual goals and find ways to achieve them while in college.
• We have a 15-week touchpoint system to help navigate and foster the mentoring relationship found within our BAC Mentor Toolkit.

We do our best to match mentees with mentors who have expertise in their major. However, in most cases we match individuals to mentors based on their willingness to serve and who work on the mentee’s campus of greatest attendance.

If you are a current mentee and would like to be assigned to a new mentor, email us at blackamericancouncil@tri-c.edu or call our office at 216-987-4527.

It depends. Some programs are only available to mentees, including the ones listed on the Mentee Programs webpage. The BAC programs, events and activities that are open to all students will be noted as such in our marketing collateral.

Yes, the scholarship is only available to currently enrolled and active BAC mentees. In order to be eligible BAC mentees must attend at least 3 mandatory BAC events each academic year. To learn more about the scholarship fund and Frances Mason Franklin, visit the Frances M. Franklin Scholarship Program webpage.

Simply let us know if you would like to volunteer for one of our events throughout the academic year or possibly serve as a semester intern within our department. Email us at blackamericancouncil@tri-c.edu and use “Volunteer” or “Intern” in the subject line. Someone from the office will follow up with your inquiry.

Funds are distributed up to one week after the deadline. To apply, you must meet certain criteria found on our webpage under the BAC Emergency Funds tab.

The Black Caucus is an Employee Resource Group of the College for employees only. The Black Caucus offers:

• Networking opportunities
• Professional development
• Leadership preparation and opportunities
• Peer mentoring
• Employee advocacy and retention
• Recruitment activities
• Community service opportunities