After mentoring and counselling students for approximately 27 years, Samuel Wright, University of South Florida's (Bulls Campus) student ombudsman, is all set to retire on Feb.15.
A Boynton Beach native, Wright's tenure at the university involved assisting students in finding financial aid, helping in the registration process, academic challenges or simply essaying the role of a counselor.
His job at the University required him to be a good listener, unbiased mediator and effective communicator to help students solve their problems.
"I have been a father-figure to a lot of these young people," Wright told Tampa Bay Online.
He was a 1974 University of Florida graduate.
"I consider him my college mentor, but really he has been much more than that," said Ray Cobb, a USF graduate and an underwriting sales representative at Jazz 91.0, WCLK, a National Public Radio station at Clark-Atlanta University in Atlanta. "He was kind of like the Wizard. He was able to help us see a side of ourselves that was already."
Wright started his career with USF in 1985 as an adviser to minority student organizations to help increase minority student population, especially blacks, .
During that time they just constituted less than 5 percent of the student population.
Wright handled several key management positions at the University - assistant director for multicultural admissions to recruit and retain minority students; associate dean for student relations and director of multicultural affairs.
The university is honoring Wright with an invitation-only reception at the USF College of Education at 2 p.m. Feb. 15., to thank him for his immense contribution to the university.
