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Since a young age Will C. Pugh, Jr. has been on a path to help others by tutoring and mentoring those in need, which continued through his college and adult life. His philosophy on life was shaped by growing up in an impoverished farming community in the Mississippi Delta and seeing people not live up to their full potential because they didn’t have access to adequate human and financial resources. That experience taught him that some people just need a helping hand or a small boost to succeed in life. So he seized every opportunity to help others whether it was tutoring students when he was in the 7th grade, working with Junior Achievement in college, mentoring junior members of his team at work or working with youth he encountered at his church. Will believes there’s no greater joy in life than to leave this world knowing that you’ve done all you can to help others succeed.

Will has been a mentor with Mentoring Brother 2 Brother, Inc. (MB2B) since 2007. MB2B is a volunteer non-profit that empowers African American young men from homes of single mothers through mentoring and leadership development. MB2B programs are designed with the mission and vision to support the social, emotional and cultural wellbeing of youth, strategizing them through educational tutoring, leadership training, mentoring programs and community service projects. It serves as a catalyst in directing their paths away from negative peer pressure, unacceptable moral behavior, gangs and other negative urban-living obstacles, and empowers them to become our future leaders and thinkers as well as socially, culturally and community conscience young men.

Will’s involvement with MB2B consist of mentoring 4 young men, supporting mentees’ at their extracurricular activities, leading semi-monthly mentee leadership development trainings, introducing mentees to careers in Business, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or just hanging out and having fun. The projects Will focuses on within MB2B involves helping his mentees value the importance of education and building a strong educational foundation as he strongly believes that education is the vehicle through which poverty and crime can be greatly reduced.

Will takes every opportunity to show MB2B mentees how academic performance will impact their life’s trajectory. He works to help his mentees build that educational foundation by holding them accountable for excelling in the classroom, providing one on one tutoring for those in need, establishing a summer and winter reading program, serving as one of MB2B’s coaches for its Academic Bowl team (placed second each of the past two years), coordinating college tours, and assisting with college preparation. Will believes children tend to value the same things as the adults who surround them value therefore one of his greatest desires is that the things he value such as education will impact MB2B mentees in a positive way.