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Coastal Carolina University's Horry County Mentoring Program has become a leader in civic engagement thanks, to the vision and support of the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education (SCCHE) and the Dalton and Linda Floyd Family. After reports showing that nearly half of South Carolina's ninth-graders do not complete high school within four years the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, in a 2003 report, called for a public agenda for higher education to get involve with the preparation of greater numbers of students for higher education. Coastal accepted this challenge to design and implement a school-based mentoring program between Coastal students and students in the local area schools to improve the high school graduation rates and support the development of civic learning in public schools.

Mentoring has been well researched and proven effective as a youth development strategy, resulting in fewer absences from school, better attitudes toward school, better attitudes toward elders and improved relationships with parents, and less drug and alcohol use (Smink, 2004).

Horry County Grades 4-12 Mentors are trusted friends who are committed to seeing a child grow and develop. They may start out as breakfast or lunch buddies, tutors, or reading buddies, but they work to create a caring relationship that will encourage children to do their personal best and stay in school.