Student helps middle schoolers navigate the high school application process. CEO Michael N. Manta, co-founder and NYCMentors.org’s original mentor, created the program in 2018 so that high school mentors could help their younger classmates with the high school application process, as well as test prep.
A local high school student from Howard Beach has founded his own 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization aimed at getting high school students to mentor middle schoolers on the high school application process and help with test prep, and is looking to expand.
When McCallie alumni, friends, and parents in the New York area recently picked up their community newspapers or viewed the local TV news, they were surprised to hear that their school in way-off Chattanooga was getting prominent notice (even if one newscaster mispronounced McCallie, using the hard “a” accent).
Michael N. Manta is a high school senior at Xavier High School who has lived in Howard Beach his whole life. In his junior year, inspired by the mentoring that he did for his younger brother, Jonathan, as he was applying to high school, Manta co-founded the nonprofit NYCMentors.org with his brother, who attends the McCallie School.
Michael N. Manta, Co-Founder and CEO — and the program’s original mentor — of NYCMentors.org, created the program in 2018 as a way to help his younger brother, Jonathan, navigate the high school admission process and expand his search outside of the local high schools.
Michael Manta ’20 can be described as a renaissance man. A junior from Howard Beach with a good head on his shoulders, a desire to make the world a better place, and a passion to be involved in his community, he embodies what it means to be a true Son of Xavier. Outside of Xavier, Manta and his younger brother Jonathan, an eighth grader, are in the process of starting NYC Mentors, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to provide guidance and tutoring to underprivileged middle school students by connecting them with mentors currently in high school.