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ALBANY, GA -- As a part of the Omega Men of Excellence mentorship program, 30 Albany High School students are going on a college tour in Alabama and Georgia over Spring Break.

“Some may see it as losing vacation time. That may be true, we may be losing some vacation days but we feel we are gaining a future by investing in our young people,” says AHS Asst. Principal Kono Smith.

After recent shootings involving teenagers as the gunmen, the students say they understand the importance of going to college and getting as much education as possible.

“College is mandatory. Nowadays you have to have a college education to do anything,” says AHS Junior Roscoe Byrd. “If you just stay here at home and be a dropout, that's all it is: trouble. If you go to college you're going to be exposed to a whole new life. It might even change your life.

“I want to go to college because I know some people that have not gone to college and how their life is and I see how my parents are living and I know they went to college so I want to go to college too,” says AHS Sophomore Robert Marshall.

Farris Shorter with Omega Men of Excellence says the goal of the mentorship program – a program that is run through the Omega Psi Phi fraternity – is to keep students from going on the wrong track.

“We're constantly reading about young men having been incarcerated, going to jail, spending time in jail and we're trying to curtail that number. I continue to increase each and every week,” says Shorter.

As a former participant himself of the Omega Men of Excellence, Smith says he understands the plight some of his students face.

“I was born to poverty and I used education as a vehicle to drive myself out of poverty,” he says. “I became friends with my mentors, they gave me a sense of guidance and direction, and I was able to look at them and be inspired by each of the members that touched my life.”

Smith says he wants to encourage the students the same way his mentors encouraged him.

“Do not drop out of school. Get yourself educated because people will pay you for what you know,” Smith says.

Program coordinators say they want the students to use every minute of the trip to their advantage.

“I want them to take notes I want them to be conscious of the fact that it's important for them to further their education. Not just high school but to go into college or some trade school or technical school to learn some skill,” says Shorter.

The college tour begins March 28th. Students will visit schools such as Auburn, The University of Alabama and Tuskegee.