By Dick Mason

Observer Staff Writer

These Eastern Oregon University students may be Sunridge Middle School's most popular visitors.

They are the 17 Eastern students who serve as mentors for Native American youths at the Pendleton middle school.

The students visit the school twice a month through EOU's Native American Adolescent Mentorship Program. They serve as mentors for 22 Native American eighth-graders. The program is four years old and the current group of Eastern students have been involved since fall.

To describe the Eastern students as popular visitors to the school is an understatement, according to Dennis O'Hara, Sunridge's principal. He said the youngsters are very disappointed when the weather or something else keeps the Eastern students away.

The seventh- and eighth-graders are so proud of their mentors that they want to share them with their friends.

"They want to show them off,'' O'Hara said.

The Sunridge students are allowed to have one friend accompany them each time their mentor visits.

The 17 EOU students talk to the children about their hobbies, how they are doing in school, their future plans and much more.

They also do things such as help them with their homework.

Eastern mentor Asapmar Ogumaro said he enjoys helping his student with math assignments.

Mentor Jeremiah Benevente said it has become easier to reach out to the eighth-graders since the school year started.

"At first they were shy but then they opened up,'' he said. "It has been fun to talk to them about school and their new interests.''

Eastern mentor Mia Swanson senses that the students have become more interested in school since the program started.

"They are more excited about talking about their classes,'' Swanson said.

Many are also now starting to think more about their future.

"They are asking a lot of questions about college,'' Swanson said.

Earlier this year the middle school students visited their mentors on the La Grande campus. They looked over the university and got to enjoy recreational activities.

John Jimeno, a junior at Eastern, said the young people particularly enjoyed using Eastern's rock-climbing wall and swimming pool.

The Native American Adolescent Mentorship Program was started four years ago by Eastern student Randy Melton. Melton was a Native American student from the Pendleton area. He was struck by how excited young Native Americans were in visiting with him when he would return home.

"They wanted to hang out with him just because he was in college,'' said Brenda Lawson, NAAMP's program coordinator for the past two years.

Melton was inspired to start the mentor program and make it easier for other young Native Americans to get to know college students as role models.

Jackie Grant, director of the EOU Native American Program, has served as an administrator for the NAAMP program since it started. Lawson said the countless hours Grant has worked on the

program have been a key to its success.

"She is so passionate about it that she doesn't want it to end,'' Lawson said.

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is a major sponsor of the mentor program.

The Eastern students serving as mentors include Shellie Smietana, Sarah Reed, Asapmar Ogumaro, Chris Torres, Graham Henry, Mike Koger, Craig Coleman, Mia Swanson, Annya Ritchie, Jeremiah Benevente, John Jimeno, Miranda Medcoff, Kara Bailey, Kenneth Shombah, Adam Owens, Gabe Minthorn and Nora Croucher.