Harness the Power of Mentorship: Best Practices to Drive First-Generation Student Success

Sponsored Session: Mentor Collective

Billions are invested annually in student services, but many students never access them. As the value of higher education is increasingly scrutinized, institutions can not afford to have underused services. To address this, institutions are harnessing the power of mentorship to dismantle barriers hindering first-generation students from accessing student support services.

Effective mentorship programs employ diverse strategies to offer guidance and assistance. With intentional connections, mentors draw from their journeys of perseverance and direct mentees to tailored resources for specific challenges. Presenters will share how an intentionally designed mentorship program enhances first-generation students’ sense of belonging and steers them toward the experiences and resources that help them thrive in and beyond college.

Learning Outcomes

1. Explore the relationship between students’ sense of belonging, peer connections, and students’ use of campus resources as essential components to embedding an institutional culture of care.

2. Consider tools for measuring students’ sense of belonging and learn how a deeper understanding of students’ socio-emotional state can be harnessed in practice to drive first-generation student success outcomes and demonstrate the value of higher education to current and future students.

3. Examine how the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, Georgia Tech, and Duke University have leveraged the high-impact practice of mentorship to institutionalize a culture of care without added administrative burden.

About Mentor Collective

Mentor Collective, an education technology provider, drives student belonging and retention through research-backed, scalable peer mentorship solutions. Supported by the Lumina Foundation, Mentor Collective’s proprietary approach to student success brings student insights to the forefront of strategic planning. The company partners with 180+ institutions to unlock the transformative power of peer relationships and catalyze student success practices with actionable peer insights.

Kathryn Marten, Student & Community Engagement Coordinator for the Cofrin School of Business

Annemieke Rice, Vice President of Partner Success