Teacher preparation programs across the country have faced criticisms regarding the quality of their programs. Additionally, these programs now compete with non-traditional programs when their graduates seek positions in public schools. As a result of many conversations as well as audits of the degree program at institutions in the state of Texas, the authors were interested in examining dimensions of the student teaching program at one institution. The dimension of the program they were most interested in evaluating was mentoring. Much of the literature on mentoring is on the in-service dimension, i.e., practicing teachers. They were interested in studying the impacts of mentoring with pre-service teachers, i.e., student teachers. This study on mentoring of pre-service teachers focused on the perceptions of the mentoring experiences of HBCU student teachers. This study affirmed that the student teaching program must include a succinct focus and actualization of mentoring with student teachers. The authors found that these programs must be tailored to the actual needs of the student teachers. They also found a need for a pre-student teaching phase where pre-service teachers could be acquire an understanding of the expectations, components, goals, and challenges of the student teaching experience. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.)