I'm Tim Thompson, professor of music here at the University of Arkansas, starting
my 41st year. (Having said that, it's really good. It's really good.)
My name's Dekarius Dawson, I am from Memphis, Tennessee,
receiving a Bachelor of Arts in music
with a jazz concentration, and I'm a
first-generation college student.
 
Well, we got the call to do mentoring...I was a first-gen student,
so I was very interested in that. They gave me
Dekarius' name and email and then
we met and it was just -- it was fun, it was
just really fun right from the beginning.
I tried not to be sort of the professor
and you're the student, I tried to just
be a friend, you know, somebody to just chat with.
I saw that he was gonna be my
mentor for the program and I was like
'Okay, he's a cool dude -- we see each other, we speak -- I can't wait to get to know him.'
I never tried to give any, you know, "sage
advice," just, you know, how you doing?
What's going on? What can I do to help? Is there anybody I can get you in touch
with? And he's just been a great guy to
get to know.
It's just a, you know, I guess a refreshing feel or something, just to say "hey, you know what, hey man,"
you know, that type of experience, because he is like a mentor to me.
It's been good for me, because it's
reminded me of when I was a kid, when I
was starting in school and how tough
it could be. And with Dekarius I always
kind of let him take the lead, you know, I
would send him an email and say "You wanna
get together?" and, you know, a couple of
times we got together and really sat down
and chatted, you know.
Our relationship has grown, because -- really, really, because of
the mentoring program and being able to,
like, talk with Professor Thompson and just,
being able to just vent. It's all right
to ask questions, it's all right to not
know what's going on, but it's not all
right to stay not knowing or staying
in ignorance. You should ask, you should,
you know, want to do better and want to
know what can you do to succeed, honestly.
