The Scholars' Mentorship Program (SMP) at SUNY New Paltz, which has stood for years as a networking, mentoring and support initiative for talented and high-achieving general admission underrepresented students, is taking its work to new heights in the new year.  

A generous gift from alumnus Richard C. Bramwell ’96 (Business Administration; Management) has made possible the establishment of the first-ever SMP endowment fund, providing a new resource to help ensure the program’s future growth and success.  

"New Paltz has advanced since I’ve been a student there and I was like ‘what can I do?’,” said Bramwell, who since graduating has built a successful career as a real estate developer and former music producer. “This is the place that made me and got me to where I am today.” 

Once his entire donation is received over the next five years, his funding will support SMP’s programming, continuing to broaden the experiences of its students and providing opportunities for them to see themselves in fields they might not have previously considered.  

For example, on March 8, SMP students are traveling to New York City for an all-inclusive day of cultural enrichment to visit the Museum of Natural History and see a Broadway show, followed by an evening in Wappingers Falls spent with alumni sampling foods with global influences—the kind of experiential learning trip that will be replicated over time with increased support for SMP. 

The history of SMP 

Beginning from the assumption that networking is a major key to success in the 21st Century, New Paltz’s Scholars’ Mentorship Program was founded in 1988 by members of the Minority Recruitment Program (MRP) Scholarship Committee and the Black Studies Department: James Lee, Kate Hymes-Flanagan, George Roberts, Meredith Torres and Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis. A year later, the Peer Mentorship Program, founded by Dr. Gweneth Lloyd of the Psychological Counseling Center, became part of SMP. 

It has since grown from a networking initiative involving 15 faculty/staff mentors and 33 student protégés to a multi-faceted program with 56 faculty/staff mentors supporting 230 protégés.   

Over the past 20 years, it has regularly added new components. SMP is a major factor in the attraction of exceptional underrepresented students to SUNY New Paltz, plays a major role in their sense of community and belonging, and embodies the mission of the University to help students improve their lives through success in higher education and earning a degree.  

By working to address the educational disparities experienced by the historically underrepresented students of SUNY New Paltz, SMP develops a community of scholars and leaders who celebrate academic achievement, whilst becoming culturally competent, to develop an inclusive campus.  

Students who are accepted participants of SMP and actively engage in leadership and community service, either on- or off-campus, are welcome to apply for the Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis Memorial Scholarship.  

A new future 

About five years ago, the campus opened the doors to a brand new SMP center, a dedicated cultural suite that houses offices, gathering spaces, and a study area. Around the same time, SMP committed to increasing the number of supported students from 250 over the years. 

SMP will continue to advance the academic and personal development of its scholars on the New Paltz campus. These students’ achievements not only contribute to a more richly integrated campus culture, but on a wider level, they are taking the lessons they have learned, becoming economically self-sufficient, and making positive contributions to their communities, and to society in general.    

For nearly a decade, Mark Rumnit ’93 (History) has served as Director of the Scholars’ Mentorship Program. 

"I was educated under Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis' stewardship, which is why this mission means so much to me,” said Rumnit. “I knew her, I was mentored by her and her peers, and the department. I felt that it was my purpose to continue to keep this program alive in her name.” 

And not only is SMP a major factor in attracting students to apply to the University, it also plays a significant role in retaining them, too. 

"We know that students’ transitions into college the first year is very difficult and stressful,” said Rumnit. “If they successfully transition into the University, their chance of completion goes up significantly. We are continuing to push that with this program.” 

According to Rumnit, three out of four SMP students graduate and 90% of first-year students are retained – much higher than the national averages for all colleges and universities. Over the past eight years, the number of students who have received a Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis Memorial Scholarship has doubled from five to 10 students. That is due to consistently advocating for more donations and the endowment investments increased returns.  

Students making the difference 

During the fall semester, SMP students attend a reception where they have the opportunity to enjoy a night of networking with their mentors.  

Briana Mitchell ’25 (Accounting) was one of the students in attendance at the fall 2024 event. She is also a part of the 90% retained. When she first chose New Paltz, she had figured she would come here for a year and then transfer to one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). That plan changed after realizing the support SMP offered her.  

Mitchell recalls herself as a quiet, shy first-year student. Thanks to SMP, she thrived and grew in ways she never imagined. Mitchell won the Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis Memorial Scholarship three times, putting her on the path to graduating debt-free. While she continues her mentorship with her faculty mentor Camille Ransome ’02 (Sociology) ’14g (School Leadership), Senior Financial Aid Advisor in Student Financial Services, she has also been a peer mentor for three other SMP students.  

“I didn’t see myself as a leader or someone who could stand in front of people before I got here,” said Mitchell. “SMP gave me more confidence to go out of my shell.” 

Ransome saw that transformation firsthand. 

“Over the years, I have seen her develop into a kind and brave student leader on campus,” said Ransome, who was also in the program as an undergrad here. “I've witnessed Briana push past insecurities to step up to the plate to get the job done when called upon.” 

The experience is an echo of things Bramwell saw when he enrolled at New Paltz three decades ago. He remembers sitting in Shango/College Hall with his roommate, Sean Foote ’96 (Business Administration), thinking about what would come next for them.  

Now they have an answer: Both Foote and Bramwell have emerged as leaders within a network of New Paltz friends that stretch from New York to Georgia and beyond. 

"We are focused on giving back, mentoring and developing the younger generation, and being a living example of what they could be,” said Foote, who currently serves as a SUNY New Paltz Foundation Board Director. Today, he is a VP at Morgan Stanley and founded a tech company with Bramwell and other New Paltz alum that focuses on digital estate planning. “Knowing that we walk that same path and have achieved certain levels of success in our careers, we want to give back and be an example and show younger students their journey forward.” 

It’s exactly what Rumnit stands behind as well: “Students have to see themselves in those fields to actually become that.” It’s two-fold: students can see donors like Bramwell support the program and aspire to do the same one day, while the endowment also provides additional opportunities for SMP students to attend more events across the state, building inspiration in additional fields there too. “For a lot of them, these are new experiences,” said Rumnit. “Their eyes are lighting up.” 

It wasn’t until Bramwell visited campus and met an SMP student just like him that he realized the potential supporting this program can really have. The student, like Bramwell, was a business major from Southeast Queens. Bramwell says he doesn’t want to see students go through the same things he did to achieve success.  

"What I would like to see in the Scholar’s Mentorship Program is continued mentorship,” said Bramwell. “I want to come back and help mentor, take a student under my wings, and direct them. Maybe there is something that I had to go through that I can tell them, so they don’t have to do it that way and cut down on the time. That’s what I want to do.”