After five years in the military and three years in the Persian Gulf as an avionics technician, Benito Molina returned to the United States to finish college at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin on the GI Bill.

Culture shock and adjusting to a new city weren't the only obstacles Molina had to overcome.

"When I first got (to UTPB), I didn't know anybody," he said.

At 28, he said he had difficulty rejoining a community that was much younger than he was. He said meeting people has been hard because he lost "commonalities" with many students today.

He found help though thanks to UTPB's student mentor program that helps new students like Molina ease into college.

"(My mentor) got me a job at school and introduced me to my professors," he said. "She takes me to lunch and lets me know about events going on."

He said if it weren't for his mentor he would've never joined the business club he participates in.

"It has been amazing since," he said.

Cindy Sanchez is now a mentor for beginning students, but she spent her first few years of school lost in an abyss of programs, professors, classes and clubs at a much bigger university in East Texas.

She dropped out.

Two years later, her father brought her home to Odessa, and she started back at UTPB where she was assigned a mentor. She was offered a blueprint for college.

"I could tell somebody cared, and not just to keep me at the school but to succeed," Sanchez said.

The fact that somebody cared was enough fuel to drive her toward success.

"Instead of C's and D's, I'm making A's and B's," she said.

Being a mentor has given Sanchez an opportunity to share what she learned. She also said it will help her one day in her teaching career.

"The program is the best thing they've brought to UTPB," she said.

ABOUT THE MENTOR PROGRAM

>> The program started in 2003 and was funded by a Developing Institutions Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of Education. It was expanded to include transfer students in 2005.

>> If a new student needs help, they can contact the admissions department. The mentor coordinator is Stephanie Hernandez.

>> If a student is admitted provisionally, then that means their credentials didn't meet the university's standards, thus the student is on probation. If this is the case, then they are automatically placed in mentor program as a condition of their admittance.