Across the nation, minority males have one of the lowest college-graduation rates of any group. On Nov. 6, college presidents, community members and students met in Durham, NC to try to turn that around, NBC 17's MyNC.com reported.
"Truthfully we need more college graduates," NC Community College System President Scott Ralls said. "As a nation we've fallen behind."
The state community college system held its Fifth Annual Minority Male Mentoring Conference. The system estimates that if graduation rates of minority students rose to that of white students by 2020, the state would add over $5 billion to the economy.
More than half of all Hispanic and African-American high school graduates enroll in community colleges. Cedric Bettis is proof that mentoring can make a difference. The Durham Tech alumnus had already dropped out of college once when he went back and decided to enroll in its minority mentoring program.
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