Student Mentors helping to cope
At our school, we have a student mentoring program. I feel that this program is the first step in keeping the students we have and improving current retention rates. All others involved in the education experience should also play a part in this effort, so we all need to step up our efforts to make sure that we understand the students' problems. How do we stress the importance of retention to the student mentors? Any thoughts?
How do you choose your student mentors, Peter? Are they students working with students or are the mentors staff/faculty working with students?
If the mentors are students, they will pick up on the many cues that the school staff and faculty send. If everyone at the school is walking the talk, they will get the message. If they feel that retention is merely receiving lip service they will pick up on that also. Presumably, these students are chosen for their maturity as well as their classroom ability. If so, you should be able to develop their commitment to the idea of being able to help others succeed. They will respond to the positive impact they can have on others; they probably won't respond similarly if retention is framed in economic terms.
Excellent, what we have come up with is this. We have allowed graduates to come back and speak to the active students here at our institution. This seems to give the students a different perspective, and they seem to accept it more so from there peers!
What forum do you use for the graduates, Bishop? Are they invited into a class? If so, at what point - beginning, middle or end of the course?
I feel that mentors that are in the same boat so to speak, other students are a great asset to the student that may be having trouble with a specific problem. The student mentor is more likely to have a better understanding of what the stressed student is dealing with.
