A mentor could help minority high school students understand the importance of higher education.

Each year, TCU students help show local high school students what college is all about during the minority student leadership conference.

The conference targets minority high school students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and gives them options and opportunities to further their education.

Senior psychology major Roxana Aguirre said she had no one to inform her about college.

“Students need mentors, people who have been there,” Aguirre said.

TCU student Jonathan Davis, director of MSLC, said it is important to give high school students hope in going to college.

Attending college is important for the development and well-being of the students, Davis said.

TCU students organized different workshops to demonstrate the differences between high school and college. Some of the workshops included a look at the average day of a college student, college survival and the application process. The high school students were able to ask any questions that they had.

Chancellor Victor Boschini was the keynote speaker at this year’s conference. Boschini shared his personal college experience and how he was able to make college affordable for himself.

Mr. and Mrs. TCU, SuperFrog, and members of sororities and fraternities were in attendance.

In small groups, students learned how a college degree would open doors in their future and provide a much larger income compared to someone who does not go to college.

For some of the high school students, going to college would be a first in their families.

“[If] I actually go to college and graduate from college, which I will, I’ll be the first in my family like ever,” high school junior Paola Inanez said.

“If I actually go to college, I’ll be the first male in the family to graduate. My mother was the first female to graduate in 2005,” Xavier Hicks, a high school junior, said

Both Inanez and Hicks said they are working hard to keep their grades up because college is important if they wanted a good career. Davis said he hopes the conference showed the students that college is possible for anybody.