Bringing Bobcats closer together has been a mission for Delfin Bautista, director of the LGBT Center.
Bringing Bobcats closer together has been a mission for Delfin Bautista, director of the LGBT Center.
One way that Bautista is getting to that goal is the new addition of an LGBT mentorship program, where new students are paired with older students as a support system and contact for navigating college life as an LGBT individual.
Excitement for this program has begun, and Morgan Kohls, a junior studying pre-med and biological sciences, signed up to mentor. Kohls said looking back, she wished she could have had a mentor during her
first year at Ohio University.
“I know that my freshman year was really difficult because I was in the process of adjusting to college life and coming out to my family and
my friends, so that was really stressfull and if I had someone to talk to that had actually gone through the same thing as me, it would have made my life a lot easier,” Kohls said. “So, I want to be that resource for someone else.”
As the mentorship program aims to bring people together it will hopefully grow, Bautista said.
“Being that we have a large incoming freshman class, we hope that this is something that will really take off and expand,” Bautista said.
Sarah Jenkins, programming coordinator for the LGBT and Women’s Centers, said those who are interested can sign up online through the LGBT Center’s site, ohio.edu/ lgbt/.
For Jenkins, she said she is excited about the opportunity this program presents for shedding light on the resources that can be found at OU for the LGBTQA community.
“The hope is that it will give ... new students the opportunity to get to know the university, especially related to the unique needs of LGBT students and also get some social enjoyment from that,” Jenkins said.
Kohls said she hopes to pass down a little bit of comfort and wisdom to her mentee.
“First and foremost, all of the resources we have here on campus,” Kohls said. “There are so many events that the LGBT Center puts on and on top of that, academic resources that we have, all of the organizations ... so that the students can get as involved as possible and feel at home and be successful.”
The program is open to all and any, no matter the letter of the acronym. Registration is still open through the LGBT Center.
For Bautista, it’s another step towards expanding the impact that the center has on the Athens community.
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