Mentor helps Fort Greene teen start clothing brand

National Mentoring Month celebrates the relationships between mentors and mentees that help young Brooklyn residents grow.

News 12 Staff

Jan 16, 2020, 1:33 PM

Updated 1,806 days ago

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National Mentoring Month celebrates the relationships between mentors and mentees that help young Brooklyn residents grow.
Three years ago, 16-year-old Mohamed Mbaye met his mentor on the basketball court.

"He started talking to me, helping me, me helping him in basketball,” says Mbaye.

Since then a lot has changed for the high school junior who emigrated to Fort Greene from Senegal.
Mbaye started his own brand “We Got Game."

“We wanted something to symbolize all of us at the same time, the individual himself or herself and whatever your specialty is. If its basketball well put a crown and a basketball,” says Mbaye.

The team was paired by the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, who sponsors the mentorship program.

Together they took Mbaye's brand to the next level, competing in DYCD's Young Sharks competition against other young entrepreneurs.

Mbaye says next on his list of goals is college.

"They took me to LIU, they showed me around I spoke to the person who actually reads your recommendation letters and she told me what to do,” says Mbaye.