Warrior of the Week

The Volunteer Academic Mentoring Program is Joint Base McGuire-Dix Lakehurst's newest community support program, which will allow military personnel, spouses, civilians, contractors and college students to volunteer their time and subject expertise to mentor college students.

The so-called "VAMP" program was created upon receiving an unusually high number of tutoring requests from community members. Without the resources and number of tutors necessary, they decided to make use of the untapped knowledge in our community.

The program can benefit for first-time students, students who may be struggling with courses and anyone who wants to mentor. The subject matter tutored will include most core subjects including math, English and public speaking and will be limited to the tutors' knowledge.

The first meet-and-greet for students and mentors is scheduled for Sept. 29, 2014, and already has participants ready to go.

"It all sparked after I was helping my kids who are in college," said Lt. Col. Todd Randolph, 87th Force Support Squadron commander and VAMP volunteer. "VAMP is a great opportunity to share my knowledge and experience with the JB MDL community. The value of your expertise is to share it with someone else and there's always time to help."

VAMP will begin orientations and training in September and begin tutoring in October.