L-R: ACM Advisement Coordinator for Pathways for Success R.C. Cofield, Dr. Anne Crum Student Leadership Award and Scholarship Recipient Jeanclaude Ndango, and ACM Pathways for Success Program Director Tara DeVore.
Allegany College of Maryland Pathways For Success Student Receives Leadership Award
CUMBERLAND, Md. (Mar. 26, 2020) – Jeanclaude Ndango, a Human Service Associate major at Allegany College of Maryland and Cumberland resident, was presented with the Dr. Anne Crum Student Leadership Award and Scholarship at the West Virginia TRiO Association’s annual Student Leadership Conference. Ndango was recognized at a dinner on March 7 during the conference’s activities at the Flatwood Conference Center in Sutton, West Virginia. The Dr. Anne Crum Student Leadership Award and Scholarship is awarded to students who demonstrate incredible potential and promise.
Ndango, originally from Cameroon, West Africa, immigrated to the U.S. at the age of nine. At the time, he spoke very little English. After attending Roosevelt High School in Washington, D.C., he was unable to afford college after high school. Instead, he worked with his brother to support their family and put aside his father’s dream that his son attend college.
“After his father passed away, Jeanclaude decided to fulfill his own passion and fulfill his father’s dream and enrolled at ACM,” explained Tara DeVore, director of ACM’s Pathways for Success (TRiO) program. “After entering TRiO, his grades improved dramatically, and his confidence grew. His leadership and tenacity makes Jeanclaude one of those standout students that deserve recognition. Jeanclaude gives credit to several mentors for helping him in his transformation, and now he is wants to pay that forward in the field of Human Services working with youth.”
Ndango is now a mentor for the Pathways for Success TRiO program, and a founding member of the Aspiring Young MENtors student group, a group of African American male mentors and emerging mentors who help guide, encourage and support other African American male students on campus. He is also the president of ACM’s Omicron Pi Chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society. Upon graduation in May, Ndango plans to major in Behavioral Science at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania, with the goal of working with young men in group homes.
DeVore and R.C. Cofield, advisement coordinator for ACM’s Pathways for Success (TRiO) program, attended the Student Leadership Conference with Ndango, Tiffany Carroll, Kendra Coleman, India Fuller, Myana Gassaway, Markisha Robin, Danielle Spears and Cierra Walch.
ACM’s Pathways for Success Program is a federally-funded TRiO Student Support Services program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Program goals include increasing the retention, grade point average, graduation and transfer rates of first generation, income eligible students as well as those students with documented disabilities. The program is funded to serve 140 ACM students annually. For additional information, contact Tara DeVore.
