A program geared toward supporting an often underrepresented population is continuing at Skyline for women of color to obtain support and cultivate leadership skills.

This past spring, the program was launched. Over the summer the leaders were looking to find ways to benefit and expand on the program.

The Skyline Nations Program began as the Skyline Mentoring Program. It partnered with the San Francisco chapter of LINKS, the international women’s organization that focuses on networking African American women, which established a program last year. The organization wanted to revive it, and the opportunity arose when Dr. Richard Soyombo, LINKS and Communications professor Daniel Powell began developing a framework around women of color.

As of the 2015 fall semester, Brianna Clay, adjunct general counselor, and student success program participant, joined the team. Clay took the place of Clyde Lewis, former leader and adjunct faculty of Global Learning, who is still a part of the program. She hopes to circulate the information necessary to help women of color to connect and have a better support system.

“We wanted to bring a program here for women of color to build that support system here at Skyline College,” Clay said.

Since last spring semester, Lewis had at least one major goal in mind.

“Since the population (women of color) tends to be overlooked, we wanted to create a way to create a program that would empower this group through different activities, such as how to write a resume or proper ways to network,” Lewis said.

The program will facilitate meetings for the young women involved, where they will be given a theme for the week or receive a lecture on a critical skill. For example, someone may teach the group how to do an elevator speech. From here, the students are provided with more tips and given a chance to practice in front of the group.

Jazmina Bannag, a student life office worker, was part of the six-week program in April of 2015.

“I was able to network more with a lot of staff and faculty on the campus that I didn’t know previously, more so with the deans and connecting with the LINKS program in San Francisco,” Bannag said.

From August 1-8, the African Diaspora and District Study Abroad programs, which are housed at the Division of Global Learning Programs and Services, were given the opportunity to send eight Skyline College students to teach English to elementary school students in Antigua, Guatemala. This is just the beginning. Clay, Powell and others plan to do more traveling to help mentor students in other countries hoping to achieve a higher education.

Meetings will be held Sept. 8 through Dec. 8 on Tuesdays from 2:30 P.M. to 5:30 P.M. The meeting place is still to be determined.