Because of this year's campus visit to the University of Maryland, 12 middle school girls of color now see college as a part of their future and know what to do to get there. We reinforced our message that persevering and doing well in school is a positive thing when the girls and their mothers attended a celebration for one of our graduates.

SisterMentors' women of color doctoral candidates are powerful role models for our girls as they step outside the academy and into their communities to inspire and motivate girls of color to excel academically and go to college. Our women understand the urgent need to address the high dropout rate among youth of color.

Because of strong peermentoring, individual mentoring and coaching, three more SisterMentors' women received their doctorates earlier this year and two more are expected to get their doctorates this month.

SisterMentors' women have worked hard and made sacrifices to succeed in school and continue to do so as they reach for their doctorates. Our women face many obstacles including lack of mentoring and support from dissertation advisers in the academy, working full time jobs to support themselves and their families while writing their dissertation, and the scarcity of faculty of color role models at their universities.

Our program this year helped 25 girls of color and 16 women of color in the Washington, D.C. area. As we have every year since we launched our website in 2001, this year we received numerous email requests to mentor and support more women and girls of color.

We receive a high volume of email from women of color doctoral candidates in other parts of the country who request our help as they detail their struggles with their quest for the doctorate. Unfortunately, we do not yet have the resources to help others outside of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, but hope to do so in the near future. We urge women of color doctoral candidates to come together to mentor and support each other through the dissertation process and to also reach out to girls of color in their community.

We would like to thank all our donors and friends for their support this year. Special thanks to Linda Orr, Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Duke University and to Sullivan & Worcester, a Washington, D.C. law firm that generously donates us office space.

We are very optimistic about the future as we enter the seventh year of our program. We wish you and your loved ones the best for the holidays and for 2004.

Shireen K. Lewis, J.D., Ph.D., Executive Director