LAUNCH Day: The Southeast AL AHEC Pilot Mentor Program

Dr. Marvin Lowe, Director for the Bullock County Technical Center in Unions Springs, AL hosted the long-awaited launch of the Southeast AL AHEC Pilot Mentor Program on Tuesday, October 1, 2019. Six student mentors from Auburn University's Harrison School of Pharmacy were matched with six senior-level student mentees from Bullock County to hold sessions in ACT Prep, Interviewing Skills, Financial Literacy for College, and Essay Writing during the next eight months: October 2019-May 2020.

The program is part of the SEAAHEC mission to provide greater access to health care through building and sustaining a healthcare workforce in the SEAAHEC 15-county service area. A campus tour of Auburn University and a Certificate Program are scheduled, respectively in February and May 2020.

The Auburn Pharmacy students demonstrate Auburn’s mission as a land-grant university to give back to the citizens through “core missions of education, research, and outreach - “according to Dr. Richard Hansen, Professor and Dean of the Harrison School of Pharmacy. Dr. Hansen upholds these missions in his role as Dean and in his service as a SEAAHEC board member.

Under the supervision of Dr. Paul Jungnickel, Auburn Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Programs, the interested, pharmacy students applied to serve as mentors and agreed to drive from Auburn to Union Springs once a month in support of the students in Bullock County who are interested to pursue a healthcare career.

In theory and based on a 2018 National Institute of Health study, mentorship is a relationship building program that “involves both a coaching and an educational role, requiring a generosity of time, empathy, a willingness to share knowledge and skills… of others.[1]

In practice, it is partnership among like-minded entities and individuals: a rural technical center, a regional, land-grant university, a regional non-profit organization, and willing health professions and high school students – all working together and dedicated to building a stronger health care workforce in Southeast Alabama.

[1] Burgess, A., Diggele, C. V., & Mellis, C. (2018). Mentorship in the health professions: a review. The Clinical Teacher, 15(3), 197–202. doi: 10.1111/tct.12756. Retrieved from:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29318730