Across the nation, minority males have one of the lowest college-graduation rates of any group.

Friday, college presidents, community members and students met in Durham to try to turn that around.

"Truthfully we need more college graduates," NC Community College System President Scott Ralls said. "As a nation we've fallen behind."

The state community college system held its Fifth Annual Minority Male Mentoring Conference Friday.

More than half of all Hispanic and African-American high school graduates enroll in community colleges.

You don't have to tell Cedric Bettis that mentoring can make a difference.

The Durham Tech alumnus had already dropped out of college once when he went back and decided to enroll in their minority mentoring program.

"It made me feel welcome," Bettis said of the experience. "It gave me an opportunity to engage with like minded people in a similar situation."

The goal of the conference was simply to fine tune the mentoring programs at different colleges to graduate more minority students.

"We're there to serve all of our students," James Sprunt Community College President Lawrence Rouse said. "We want to make sure our minority males are just as successful as any other students on our campus."

The state community college system estimates that if graduation rates of minority students rose to that of white students by 2020, the state would add over $5 billion to the economy.