Mentors improve the chances that a child facing social and economic disadvantages will beat the odds and succeed. In this course each Georgia Tech student will engage in near-peer mentoring with high school students as they prepare for college. You will expand your understanding and empathy through exposure to experiences with education that are likely different in some ways from your own. You will also identify the issues that contribute to the persistent inequality in the US education system as well as the solutions that have been proposed to address them.

After this class you should be able to:

1. Use data and case studies to explain the impact of persistent patterns of inequality in the US education system on educational opportunities, experiences, and outcomes, especially for young people of color and those coming from low-income communities.
2. Critically evaluate the effectiveness of educational reform initiatives, including mentoring as a general strategy and your specific experience in this course.
3. Apply mentoring techniques to the near peer mentoring relationship.
4. Compare, contrast and identify ways that personal circumstances and experiences shape the educational outcomes and opportunities for you and your mentees and use these insights to inform your perspectives on patterns of inequality in the educational system and educational reform initiatives.