The Male Development Association

In Spring of 2016, SIPS funded Jerome Small for his project: the Male Development Association. The Male Development Association (MDA) is a Georgetown University student-led organization that mentors young, male students in public high schools across the District of Columbia every week. MDA’s trained mentors engage in digging deeper discussions revolved around respecting your brothers, survivor’s guilt, being a gentleman, the importance of education, race and everything in between. Along with these conversations, the Association also hosts workshops on dressing professionally, dining etiquette, personal branding, networking, college searching, and much more. The theme for the 2017-2018 academic year is exposure. This includes exposing MDA’s mentees to topics they normally don’t discuss, activities that they barely get to participate in, and environments that they may have never even known existed. While keeping this theme at its core, the Association commits itself to build strong relationships with their young men and will do its best to help guide them throughout their high school and collegiate journeys. MDA believes in the importance of giving back to the community and assumes the great responsibility of contributing to and helping build strong, successful men of the future. The Association plans to further its contribution by expanding its efforts within the Duke Ellington Performing Arts High School. MDA aims to double its student participation, establish an after school tutoring program, allow their students to shadow mentors on Georgetown’s campus, and continue its outreach to male, Georgetown students of color.