About
MALE Connection (Mentoring African-Americans for Leadership, Education & Connection) is Georgia College’s African-American Male Initiative, supported by the University System of Georgia’s African-American Male Initiative (AAMI) started in 2002. Our program initially began as AIM Academy in 2006, which was a summer camp for high school Black males wishing to gain exposure to everything from college prep information to etiquette workshops. In 2010, the program re-directed its focus to become MALE Connection under the leadership of the Office of Institutional Equity & Diversity and several individuals across campus.
MALE Connection is currently housed within GC’s College of Education (headquartered in our Kilpatrick building) but serves students across all majors and collaborates with offices throughout Georgia College’s campus.
MALE Connection involves partnerships with several community collaborators, including:
- Early College Program
- High Achievers
- Various other community entities
The support of these organizations and other constituents both on and off campus is vital to ensuring that our program continues to make the desired impact.
Want to learn more information on how to support or collaborate with MALE Connection? Click the links for contact information to contact our office directly.
Program Director's Welcome
Welcome to the website for Georgia College’s African-American Male Initiative (AAMI), known on campus as “MALE Connection”! I’ve been working with this program since Fall 2010, and every year I look forward to the new challenges and success stories from our students’ participation. While Black males account for a small percentage of the total undergraduate population here, the students within MALE Connection thrive on campus and have continuously been standard-bearers for academic excellence for the entire state university system. I fully expect our AAMI program to help continue this trend.
I encourage you to peruse our website and learn more about our program and its key components. If you’re a prospective student, please be sure to arrange a visit to our campus soon; we may even be able to arrange a “shadow visit” where you can see our campus through the eyes of one of our MALE Connection students!
Please don’t hesitate to email me (Melvin.Middleton@gcsu.edu) if you have any questions or ideas for programs that could benefit the students in our program. Enjoy checking out our website! If you’d like to learn more about the University System of Georgia’s African-American Male Initiative in general, please visit the website here: https://www.usg.edu/aami/
Sincerely,
Dr. Melvin S. Middleton, Jr.
Program Director
Key Components
As an AAMI program, MALE Connection follows the official AAMI Integrated Program Model, which focuses on addressing retention, progression, and graduation of African-American males via the following components:
- Academic Skills Enrichment: Provides supplemental literacy, writing, math and study-skill activities to help pre-college students transition to college academic life during the summer and assist enrolled AAMI participants with RPG (retention, progression, and graduation) throughout the academic year.
- Student Support Services: Makes available internal and external resources, information and learning tools to enhance students’ academic and social successes.
- Adult & Peer Mentoring: Connects AAMI students to vetted adults and peers who encourage achievement, foster positive attitudes, as well as a sense of belonging through personal and academic support, while reinforcing RPG.
- Leadership Development: Provides multi-faceted professional and soft skills forums to help develop and strengthen participants’ leadership skills.
Make a Gift
Making a gift to MALE Connection via our Georgia College & State University Foundation is easy and there are several ways of giving from which to choose.
Online
You can contribute online with your credit or debit card using our secure online giving webpage. Under the “Designation” field, select “Other.” Then, type “African-American Male Initiative” in the “Other” field. Then, fill out the necessary information!
Telephone
You can make a gift by telephone using your American Express, MasterCard, Visa or Discover card by calling 478-445-5400 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Make sure you verbally tell the representative that you wish your gift to be restricted to Georgia College’s African-American Male Initiative.
Mail
Personal or business checks may be written to the Georgia College & State University Foundation and mailed to:
Office of University Advancement
Campus Box 96
Milledgeville, GA 31061
Please be sure to indicate that the donation is for the Georgia College African-American Male Initiative.