By Zolan Kanno-Youngs, News correspondent

Each classroom of Roxbury’s Tobin K-8 School is named after a university or college. The school is hoping that their strategy will spur students, at an early age, to think about higher education.

I met my “little” from the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay program (BBBSMB), Izaeyah French, in “Morehouse,” his third grade class. He was 9-years-old at the time, and besides the name, he knew nothing of the Atlanta-based school. I wanted to make it a goal to put a familiar face with the goal of reaching college – a face that my African-American little could relate to.

In the year-and-a-half Izaeyah and I have been matched, we have been to Northeastern University countless times, whether it be eating in the dining halls, playing pool in the Curry Student Center or even speaking on the program’s behalf in the John D. O’Bryant African-American Institute. I wanted him to feel all of the good things that come with the college environment: the independence, the freedom and the privileges.

The most significant of our visits was when Izaeyah and I had lunch with all of my African-American roommates. The look in his eyes was nothing short of amazed as he watched four African-American students, all from similar backgrounds as him and all on scholarships, casually combining life and college life – two worlds that had always seemed separate to him.

“It’s really powerful for kids of color to see men and women of color in high education,” Thomas Bentley, the BBBSMB community engagement coordinator, said. “Not just seeing them, but interacting with them. That’s what our program facilitates. It’s not just looking through a glass window at them but it’s actually bringing them together.”

The glass window still remains in the way of too many African-American boys in the city of Boston. According to the BBBSMB program, 33 percent of Little Brothers are African-American and 87 percent are of some sort of minority descent. However, only six percent of the program’s male volunteers are African-American – that’s just 97 big brothers out of the program’s 1,619 volunteers.

The disparity is not a result of a lack of effort by the program. BBBSMB has recruited in churches, colleges, barber shops and even launched a diversity council in a pursuit to find more men of color to volunteer. Just last week, Bentley spoke at the historically African-American Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. at Northeastern to recruit future role models.

The fraternity’s president, a fourth year computer-science and business dual major, Javaughn Griffin is one of the few African-American college students who already volunteers.

“Growing up in a city that lacked a presence of male positivity, and being blessed enough to have a mentor beginning in my last year of middle school, I personally understand how essential it is to reach back and bring along the younger generations to not only show them the endless possibilities, but the encouraging support they need to succeed,” Griffin said.

So then why are there still so many children just like Izaeyah, yearning for a mentor and so many qualified college males unable to find a way to sacrifice an hour a week?

There has to be a call to action amongst college students, especially those of minority descent, to groom the upcoming generation of minorities for college. If children have someone to relate to, the goal becomes more realistic and achievable.

After being matched for a year-and-a-half, college is much more than the name of a third-grade classroom to Izaeyah. He now has a goal to get a scholarship to a university and achieve his dream of playing college basketball. This past year I was awarded as one of six “Bigs of the Year” for making college a realistic goal for Izaeyah. However, the true reward is how our relationship has matured both of us.

–Zolan Kanno-Youngs can be reached at [email protected].