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Mentor Collective has the best partners in Higher Education.
At Mentor Collective, we’ve spent the past week highlighting some of our partners at higher education institutions across the country. These leaders are at the forefront of progress in the higher ed sphere, working daily for the students and communities they serve.
We wanted to take this week to shine some light on the incredible work they’re doing at their institutions. Every college and university uses mentorship programs for slightly different purposes and sees different results, but in our conversations with these industry leaders, we have noticed certain trends in the issues and strategies that are top-of-mind for them.
Today we’re sharing some of the top insights from our partners in higher education.
Read on for all of the details and links to full transcripts of interviews with these amazing administrators!
Map student insights across the academic year.
Our partners also shared how mentorship programs provide administrators with valuable insight into the student experience in addition to being effective for individual students. Nonzenzele Aldonza shared how her institution works to better use the student insight flags feature built into the Mentor Collective mentorship dashboard by expanding administrative access to those insights. Giving staff across university departments access to this information helps leaders in all areas make use of data about which problems students are struggling with and the resources they require.
Empower your mentor community through events and newsletters that connect them to their purpose.
The mentor/mentee relationship can be self-sustaining, but both parties still may benefit from guidance from administrators. Both Nonzenzele and Brianne Neptin, who is an administrator at the University of Rhode Island, told us that their mentorship program incorporates strategic messaging for mentors. Mentors need to know that their work is appreciated– particularly when they’re taking the time to flag important issues for administrators or provide feedback about how the program can improve.
Whether it’s a simple, personalized message of gratitude or a thank-you event celebrating mentors’ contributions, these small actions keep a mentorship program healthy and strong.
Work with parents and families to acquaint students with
programs pre-arrival.
Our partners also spoke about expanding awareness and participation beyond student success administrators. Darren Ward of the University of Wisconsin Stout improves student participation in mentorship by engaging key figures across the university, such as orientation leaders, in spreading the word about mentorship opportunities. At the University of Rhode Island, Brianne’s team improves student participation by connecting with parents during first-year orientation about the importance of student peer mentorship.
Empower students to build their own unique communities.
Mentorship isn’t about navigating students’ challenges for them. It’s about equipping them with the tools they need to be successful on their own. As Darren alluded to during our interview with him– sometimes the best thing you can do for students is to give them space and an opportunity to connect freely with one another on their own terms.
Mentorship alone is powerful. Mentorship scalable by technology makes an impact.
Leaders across the higher education sector were forced to adapt to difficult, rapidly-changing circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many institutions decided to move all or most classes online, which created new challenges for administrators concerned about education equity, student retention, and community belonging. In interviewing our partners, we heard firsthand how mentorship programs helped foster students’ well-being and impacts retention.
Darren shared, "our data has shown that the MentorLink program has been impactful since it began at Stout in 2018 Students who participate in the program are more likely to be retained from Fall to Spring. Our fall-to-spring persistence numbers have been very good. Fall to Spring for 2020-2021 was 88%, and the most recent numbers for 2021-2022 persistent rate is 91%." Tiffani Williams of Tuskegee University told us how mentorship helped expand access to university programs during the pandemic, as did Nonzenzele Aldonza from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Thank you again to all our amazing partners who spoke with us about their experiences running mentorship programs at their institutions. We appreciate them and all of our partners who are committed to improving education equity and student experience.
If you’re interested in learning more about how Mentor Collective’s mentorship programs help students and administrators, reach out today for a free demo.