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The purpose of this paper is to explore associations between different mentor behavioral profiles and mentees’ perceptions of the quality of mentoring relationship, the usefulness of the mentoring, and their college adjustment during the first year of college.

The study used a quasi-experimental design and involved the participation of 253 student mentees and 246 students from a control group. Cluster analysis on the responses of mentees on the mentor behavior scale was used to identify behavioral profiles of academic mentors.

Four distinct behavioral profiles were identified: optimal (high scores on mentor structure, involvement, autonomy support, and competence support); sufficient (moderate on all scales); controlling (low on autonomy support but high on other scales); and inadequate (low on all scales). Compared to mentees exposed to sufficient and inadequate profiles, mentees exposed to the optimal profile perceived the mentoring relationship and its usefulness as more positive. Furthermore, they reported better social adjustment in college compared to a control group, whereas mentees exposed to the inadequate profile reported poorer adjustment. Interestingly, mentees exposed to the controlling profile found the mentoring relationship useful.

This study provides new empirical bases for the behavioral profiles of mentors that best meet mentees’ academic adjustment challenges. Limitations of the study include the absence of the mentors’ perceptions in the creation of behavioral profiles and the fact that the profiles were analyzed based on a single program.

Behavioral profiles of academic mentors were examined through the lens of a strong theoretical model that emphasizes the important role of structure, involvement, autonomy support, and competence support in the academic adjustment of mentees.

When examining the need to increase student retention and persistence at universities, one must consider how leveraging community partnerships can assist institutions of higher education realize success that they may have not thought otherwise possible.

Additionally, individuals must look at the number of high school students who have not seen college as a viable option for them given the absence of tangible models in their homes. Creating a strong mentoring program that incorporates the expertise of community stakeholders with personal experiences of current successful college students offers a viable solution. This chapter will cover the success of the “Placing Opportunities Within Everyone’s Reach” (POWER) mentoring program developed at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in the South and its long-term impact on students.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the impact of peer mentoring on mentors working with university students with a disability. Research questions focused on how undergraduate student mentors evaluated their experience as a mentor, in what ways they benefited, the challenges they experienced and how these challenges could be addressed.

Quantitative and qualitative data examined the experiences, benefits and challenges experienced by the mentors across seven separate cohorts. Self-report measures were collected in a pre-post design, and qualitative analysis was conducted on focus groups at the end of the program. The paper also outlines the program model including training and support mechanisms, and the program curriculum implemented by mentors.

Responses on the measures showed that student mentors saw mentoring as a positive experience, and they felt more committed to their university after participating. Qualitative content analysis of focus groups supported this and also highlighted some of the unique challenges faced by mentors working with students with a disability. These included communication difficulties, trouble building rapport, not knowing how to help their mentee and feeling over-protective.

While the findings are preliminary, results indicated that serving as a mentor to freshmen university students with a disability had an important impact on the personal growth and skills development of the mentors. In addition, similar program models should recognize that careful attention is needed to ensure mentors are fully supported in their role. Findings also highlight areas for improvement of the program such as examining longer term outcomes, including a comparison group, and seeking the perspectives of the mentees. Limitations included limited standardized assessment tools to assess impact more broadly.

The study is original in its focus on improving current understanding of outcomes for student mentors who are working with incoming university students with a disability status.

This article, which is conceptual and exploratory in nature, aims to examine the use of sustained liminality in the initiation phase of the mentoring relationship. Liminality is the non‐structured transitional phase in transformative cultural and social change: a place betwixt‐and‐between, where previous and future norms are suspended. The article argues that providing an explicit liminal phase in mentoring relationships allows mentor and mentees to consider the nature of the relationship and the eventual process through which its goals might be accomplished.

The article reflects on experiences gained in using a liminal approach to the mentoring process with distance transnational mentees. It presents the case for the use of what is termed threshold work in addressing the transition from non‐mentored to mentored status. It understands mentoring as a ritual enactment that requires a reassessment of cultural assumptions for participants with differing national identities.

The article is conceptual in nature and presents only anecdotal outcomes derived from informal discussion with mentees. It argues that, based on these initial experiences, more evidence‐based research might be usefully conducted to examine the effect of a liminal approach on the mentoring process, at both relational and outcomes levels, particularly when mentor and mentee are distanced spatially and by national culture.

This article presents a novel perspective for approaching the initiation phase of the mentoring process. Although used in other contexts, liminality is infrequently employed in mentoring. The utilization of liminality may be particularly valuable in approaching novice mentees who have different national cultural backgrounds and prior educational experiences. As such, the article provides useful insights for practitioners, especially in academic environments.

The transition to college presents significant challenges for many students as they navigate new academic and social experiences. In the USA, 30% of first-year students drop out before their second year. Research indicates that mentoring programs help students achieve social integration and likely have a positive effect on their transition to college. This research study was conducted with education students to better understand the potential impacts of peer mentorship.

Student mentors and mentees were matched by attributes such as their concentration within the education major, gender, sports they played and whether they were first-generation matriculants. Data collection utilized two surveys one before the peer mentoring process and one after the process.

The findings suggest that peer mentoring improved first-generation students' sense of belonging to both their major and the college. Peer mentors also experienced increased belongingness. The transfer rate among participants of 2% was a significant drop from previous years.

The success of the peer mentoring experience was possibly due to the intentional matching process based on certain attributes. Additionally, taking a leadership role increased a sense of belonging in the peer mentors.

The transition from school to higher education is a complex process. Peer mentoring is often used by institutions to facilitate this process. The purpose of this research, which was conducted at a South African university, was to determine whether a peer mentoring programme, which involved a large number of students and a limited number of mentors, could successfully assist students to adapt to the academic and psychosocial demands of university life.

A sequential explanatory mixed method design was implemented. In the first phase, a questionnaire was used to collect data to establish participants' experience of the programme. The findings from the questionnaire were used to inform the qualitative phase, in which the participants' perceptions of the benefits of the mentor programme were further explored by means of group interviews. The qualitative data were analysed using inductive qualitative content analysis.

The results indicate that a structured peer mentoring programme, in which a mentor works with up to 70 mentees in a group setting, can be a useful tool to assist with students' transition to university. The research found that the peer mentoring programme contributed to the students' academic, social and personal integration into the higher education environment.

The perspectives of mentors and faculty were not included. No comparative study with students who did not participate in the programme was conducted.

This research illustrates that it is possible to mentor large groups of disadvantaged and vulnerable students notwithstanding limited resources.

In contrast to the existing literature on peer mentoring in higher education, which focuses on one-on-one or small-group mentoring, this research suggests that peer mentoring of larger groups can also play an important role in assisting students to transition to higher education. The description of the programme and the benefits students derived from it offer other institutions with limited resources some ideas about how a peer mentoring programme can be implemented.

Community college African American male student enrollment and academic success is diminishing. The authors explore the importance and wisdom of mentoring programs for African American males attending community colleges. The chapter considers issues of student persistence and retention and how they relate to effective community college mentoring programs. Specifically, the authors discuss how community college mentoring programs can counteract inherent obstacles for African American students attending commuter style campuses. A description of how some community colleges successfully engage African American male students in order to achieve Kuh's four attributes of a supportive college environment and to overcome the issues of college departure -- being first-generation college students, lacking academic self-concept, no or minimal institutional engagement with students, and no or minimal student involvement student involvement on campus – is provided. The authors highlight successful community college programs which include the national “Students African American Brotherhood” program, Santa Fe College's “My Brother's Keeper,” the North Carolina Community College System, and Hillsborough Community College's Collegiate 100.

The current study examined and explained the relationship between generativity and socially responsible leadership using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design. The first, quantitative phase examined the predictive relationship between generativity and socially responsible leadership among 82 college student leaders who mentor at a four-year, Midwestern, land-grant university using multiple regression. The second, qualitative phase used a phenomenological design to explain the quantitative results by conducting semi- structured interviews among a sub-sample (n=9) of the quantitative phase participants. Results from the current study advance leadership research in social change as well as advance instruction by helping leadership educators demonstrate their outcomes related to generativity and social responsibility.

Minority female students are increasingly faced with issues such as financial instability, work-family imbalance, and few growth opportunities in their careers. Within the context of community colleges, the presence of minority female administrators may serve as a venue for the empowerment and attainment of academic and professional goals for minority female students through administrators’ mentoring practices. The purpose of this paper is to explore the lived experience of community college minority female administrators in their role as informal mentors to community college minority female students.

The author used a qualitative phenomenological approach to explore community college minority female administrators’ experiences as mentors of female minority students. Mullen’s (2009) alternative mentoring model guided the study as well as a feminist lens. The purposive sample included six minority female administrators from two Florida community colleges, with individual interviews based on 18 open-ended questions. Data were analyzed with Atlas.ti™ qualitative software.

The findings uncovered four common themes and seven subthemes regarding the experience of informal mentoring as a minority female administrator: facilitating empowerment with two subthemes – modeling and coaching; administrator-student relationship with three subthemes – encouragement, life experiences, and past mentors; personal growth; and formalized mentoring with two subthemes – create a support system and access to information.

In any study, phenomenological or otherwise, the researcher’s biases may cloud the data analysis process, and the researcher may code the data incorrectly or leave out crucial information during the transcription of the interview. It was essential for the author to understand the concept of epochè to bracket the author’s own experiences as a minority female (Bloomberg and Volpe, 2012). The purposeful sample was small and only focused on one region in the US, and the study’s findings may not be transferable to other contexts.

Minority female administrators’ experiences mentoring minority female students have not been comprehensively explored in the scholarly realm; hence, their mentoring journey is unknown. The study sought to shatter that silence and create a dialogue that will hopefully continue in the field of mentoring.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the outcomes of a formal university mentorship program that paired junior and senior (third and fourth year) undergraduate student mentees with mentors from industry. Specifically, the researchers examined the effects of mentorship on mentees’ psychological sense of community at the university, and job search self-efficacy (confidence).

The researchers used a mixed-methods design that incorporated survey data and qualitative data from interviews and focus groups. Where relevant, mentees were compared to a control group of students who did not participate in the mentorship program.

The results demonstrate that the mentees accrued several benefits from participating in the mentorship program. For mentees (but not the control group), job search self-efficacy increased over time as a result of participating in the program. Mentees valued receiving practical career-related support such as opportunities for networking, resume development and job interviewing skills. Mentees also gained a more realistic view about the workplace and their potential career options, and received important psychosocial support from their mentor.

Results suggest that junior and senior undergraduate student mentees gained professional and career-related benefits including increased job search self-efficacy from participation in a mentorship program that paired them with mentors from industry. In addition, the qualitative results indicate that mentees reported psychosocial benefits including an increased sense of connection to the university. Altogether, results indicate that undergraduate students experience positive outcomes from participating in mentorship programs designed to prepare them for the transition from university to the workplace.