The purpose of this interpretivist qualitative study is to discover and explore what factors influence African American collegiate football student athletes with regard to their experiences that participated in a mentoring program at a predominately white institution. The grounded theory methodology was used for this study. Ten African American collegiate student athletes at a university in the Southeast were interviewed one-on-one to gain insight into their overall experience with the mentoring program. The 10 African American collegiate football athletes ranged from ages 20 to 22 years. Specifically, the football student athletes were asked to examine the programs impact on their overall personal growth, academic progress, and decision making skills. The students participated in the program for one to up to four years for some. Data were gathered from interviews, field observations, and artifacts that provide rich data in assisting in the overall impact of the mentoring program on the participants. Five themes surfaced through the initial focus coding process that provided insight into the effects of the mentoring program on the participants. The themes that surfaced were: personal growth, decision making, academics, life without college, and the benefits of a mentoring program. Additionally, 23 subcategories emerged such as: being more open, (maturity); helping others, stopping unhealthy behaviors, networking, thinking before acting out, making better decisions, improving grades, providing feedback, encouraging focus in completing homework, giving an alternative to parent/mom or coach, providing another campus resource, allowing someone to trust/confidentiality, and pushing and encouraging to do the right thing. Furthermore, under the of theme life without college, the student athletes shared seven common subcategories that included: having nothing good (bad and wrong things, bad friends), working 9 to 5, living back home (bad, not good), having a hard life, spending time in jail, not knowing where they would be; and asking "What if?" The data presented in this study includes one-hour interview questions with select participants chosen. Overall, the themes assisted in the findings that identified the impact and importance of a mentoring program for African American male student athletes at predominately white institutions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]