Ole Miss Continues Minority Recruitment With Annual Conference

By Jakorlyn Calhoun
hottytoddy.com contributor

Mississippi Outreach to Scholastic Talent (MOST) is an outreach program that seeks to recruit African American students to attend college at the University of Mississippi. 
MOST is hosting its annual conference this week (July 15-17) pairing rising high school seniors of color with upperclassmen mentors. Mentors will help guide and support students through the admission process at Ole Miss and throughout their freshmen year, according to the MOST website.
Shawnboda Mead, director of the Center for Inclusion and Cross-Cultural Engagement, said the annual conference serves as a leadership summit that provides resources and exposes seniors to higher education. 
“Our goal is to help students understand that college is a possibility for them, so we provide a lot of social and academic support,” she said. 
Mead said the MOST conference began in the 1990s. However, in 2015, the Center for Inclusion and Office of Admissions partnered together to host the first expanded version to familiarize students with the college campus and its different resources.

The three-day conference holds workshops and sessions that not only provide resources specific to the University of Mississippi, but also information about college in general including financial aid, scholarships, Greek life, etc. MOST’s end goal is not to sway students to attend Ole Miss, but to encourage them to further their education whatever direction they choose to go.
“We certainly would love every student to come here and to enroll at the University of Mississippi, but that’s not our ultimate goal,” Mead said.
Kelsi Jamison, a junior at the University of Mississippi, said her progression from attending the MOST conference as a high school senior to becoming a MOST mentor was very impactful.
“It gave me a good look into what the life of the minority was on campus,” Jamison said. “I was a little nervous because I never had a student leadership position where I was responsible for a group of minors, but I feel like I made a difference in their lives.”
Jamison said it was fun to showcase the university from the point of view of young black students.
“My main goal for my mentees is just to apply to college and go,” she said. “I just want them to further their education by applying for scholarships and go from there.”
Mead said this program gives students the opportunity to see that success is in the palms of their hands.

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