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What is mentoring?

Mentoring--from the Greek word meaning enduring--is defined as a sustained relationship between a youth and an adult. Through continued involvement, the adult offers support, guidance, and assistance as the younger person goes through a difficult period, faces new challenges, or works to correct earlier problems. In particular, where parents are either unavailable or unable to provide responsible guidance for their children, mentors can play a critical role.

The two types of mentoring are natural mentoring and planned mentoring. Natural mentoring occurs through friendship, collegiality, teaching, coaching, and counseling. In contrast, planned mentoring occurs through structured programs in which mentors and participants are selected and matched through formal processes.

What is the role of a Mentor?

Mentors serve as role models in the areas of academic achievement and co-curricular involvement in order to help first-year students successfully adjust to the University. The Peer Mentor Program pairs exceptional students with a Mentor to create unique teaching teams that provide personal support to students during their first year of college through the planning and instruction of a first year success seminar.

As mentors in the Leadership and Mentorship Program, they are involved in all aspects of course instruction such as syllabus planning, teaching specific seminar and leadership topics, facilitating class discussions, scheduling guest speakers or panels, assisting in the evaluation of students' coursework, and committing to out-of-class time with students. Peer Mentors are instrumental in creating an interactive learning centered environment where students are challenged to succeed academically while becoming actively involved in campus life. They work and serve as the "voices of experience" to 5 new first-year students. They truly are advocates for the needs, interests, and rights of first-year students at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.

How are Mentors selected and trained?

Peer Mentors are selected through a challenging selection process that requires that they have achieved at least 30 credit hours standing by the Summer I semester and have a minimum of a 3.0 GPA. They also must exemplify a strong interest in helping students become active, involved, and academically successful at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College while indicating a willingness to work closely with our program and in the planning and delivery of a helping mentor students. Interested students must complete an application and interview with the LAMP selection committee, composed of 2 staff and 3 students, before being selected to serve as a Peer Mentor.

Students who are selected to be Peer Mentors are required to attend CRLA training, a two-day workshop designed to prepare Peer Mentors. These training workshops provide information on our program, engage the mentors in interactive activities to simulate a classroom environment, discuss the difference between leadership and mentoring, highlight relevant student development theory, discuss the ethics involved in a mentoring role, and deal with potential scenarios mentors may confront in with their students. In addition to these topics current Peer Mentors are involved in the training process to offer valuable commentary on the roles and responsibilities of being a mentor.

What does the research say on the benefits of mentoring?

Arlene Mark of New York City's I Have a Dream program observed, "We will only know who can be helped or what is the right kind of mentoring, when we try it." (Flaxman and Ascher 1992). Yet while research on the effects of mentoring is scarce, some studies and program evaluations do support positive claims (Flaxman 1992). In an evaluation of Project RAISE, a Baltimore-based mentoring project, McPartland and Nettles (1991) found mentoring had positive affects on school attendance and grades in English but not on promotion rates or standardized test scores. They concluded that positive effects are much more likely when one-on-one mentoring has been strongly implemented. Another evaluation (Cave and Quint 1990) found participants in various mentoring programs had higher levels of college enrollment and higher educational aspirations than nonparticipants receiving comparable amounts of education and job-related services (figure 1).

NOTE: The people in the study were assigned at random to either an experimental group or a control group. Experimentals were eligible for Career Beginnings, which included a mentoring component; controls were excluded from Career Beginnings but were free to participate in other services available in their schools and communities.

SOURCE: Adapted from George Cave and Janet Quint, Career Beginnings Impact Evaluation: Findings from a Program for Disadvantaged High Schools Students (New York: Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, October 1990). Copyright 1990 by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation and used with permission.

What are the benefits of being a Mentor?

The major benefit of the Peer Mentor Program is that students gain valuable leadership experiences, develop effective presentation skills, and teach on the collegiate level while making a difference in the lives of first-year students.

What types are Mentors are you looking for?

LAMP is looking for students to serve as peer mentors  and for volunteer mentors who are either faculty or staff at UTB/TSC.  The students work as paid employees for LAMP and mentor 5 students and create and present workshops on different topics.  The faculty and staff mentors volunteer their time to mentor 1 student.