When Providence College's Manuel Ortiz '11 first became a student at the San Miguel School in Providence, he feared speaking in front of others because he struggled with the English language.

These days, however, he's doing a lot of talking, and much of it is on behalf of the school in the city's West End.

The first San Miguel graduate to attend Providence College is joining with his fellow Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS) to start a mentoring program for seventh- and eighth-graders at the school.

Administered by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, San Miguel is a middle school whose mission is to offer a quality education to those in need. For the past three years, dozens of Providence College students have mentored San Miguel students as part of PC's Pre-College Student Mentoring Program.

The OLAS mission is to promote the various Latino cultures found in the world today to the greater Providence community. The aim of the OLAS mentoring program will be to ease the transition to high school for San Miguel students, Ortiz said.

"Some of the kids at San Miguel are from low-income, single-parent families," said Ortiz, a biology major, who intends to attend medical school after he graduates. "They need people to tell them that there is hope and they can be whatever they want to be."

Ortiz said the program is scheduled to start early in the spring semester and will focus on four main topics: nonviolence, peer pressure relating to drugs and alcohol, time management and study skills, and cultural diversity.

The program will run two Saturdays a month for roughly four hours each time, until the end of April. Activities will include group discussions, informational and motivational talks by various professionals in fields related to each topic, skits, a physical activity period, and snack time.

As a graduate of the school, Ortiz believes his accomplishments can be an inspiration to the San Miguel students.

"We don't want them to forget where they came from," he said. "Just because they're a minority or don't have the privileges of other people doesn't mean they are less. I was in their shoes and look at me; all your dreams and aspirations can come true if you are willing to work for them."