Student Mentoring
Hello,
I am interested in introducing a student mentoring program to hook an existing student in with a new student for guidance and support. Does anyone have any experience in doing this, and best practice for gaining motivated involvement from existing students to meet the capacity of need for mentors for new students?
Christine,
I would be interested also in hearing from those professionals who have experience in this area. I have seen similar programs in traditional college setting but not in a career college environment.
Sometimes I think it would be a good idea to have mature students, who have great attendance and good grades, mentor students who are having difficulties, if said student agreed. Peer counseling and mentoring may work better that teacher/student mentoring, because the students expect the teacher to mentor them. This put a new perspective on an old concept.
Joanne
Hi Christine--
One of the other students (Estelle Coffino) has an excellent program briefly outlined in the original forum. You may want to review what she's outlined. It sounds like they have been doing this for some time and she really has some great ideas.
Susan
Julius--
If you didn't already, there is an excellent example of a peer mentoring program outlined in the other discussion thread under Forum 1.
Susan
I have worked in a school where assigning student mentors was an integral part of new student orientation. When we first initiated this practice, we had a hard time getting current students to agree to mentor new students, so we started small - one program. Within a couple of academic quarters, it really became a status symbol almost for students to be mentors. Then we were able to require the mentor be in good academic standing, have a strong attendance record, etc. We actually gained benefits we did not expect because students who wanted to be mentors who had questionable or borderline grades and/or attendance showed improvements in those areas in order to become mentors! It is a wonderful program. I am a firm believer that it takes many retention techniques to improve numbers; no one tool works for every student. The mentoring idea was a huge success in that school. By the way, we called them Student Ambassadors - our students loved that title.
Peer mentors keep students focused on what is important.
Steven--
I especially like using peer mentors for students because students tend to relate to them very well...it seems less intimating to them I think to have another student whom they perceive can relate their situation.
Susan
Has any one experienced issues with student mentoring where a student might not be open to another student being the mentor? Could this cause the student needing the help to feel incompetent?
Brian
Brian--
Yes, I have had this experience. It is important to 'mentor' students in a way that does not make them uncomfortable. So if it's just a 'hey, how's it going?' and then nothing for weeks that's fine. Others want/need much more attention.
The most difficult thing about this whole situation is teaching students to discern how their 'mentee' preferences.
Susan
Hello Christine,
I am in charge of the Student ambassadors at Miami Jacobs and I have been working out a tutoring program for their online classes. So far it has been very successful. I have been placing my ambassadors in the computer labs during the busiest times of the day to help students out who are struggling. I have also been pairing students up one-on-one with each other. I have seen an increase in success since this program. I have created a bulletin board outside the main classrooms displaying the photos of our "tutors" so students can find them more easily and become less shy.
