Student Mentoring Programs
I have implemented a student mentoring program with the senior students to the freshman students. This has been an integral part of the retention process in the program. Retention is usually that one thing that we are trying to improve always. The ability to provide this assistance for another student has given such a positive jump start to the retention movement. If you do not have a mentoring program implemented, please do it! It truly works!
John,
Why would this be the case? A mentoring program does need structure and instructors should be involved or aware of the structure.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Student mentoring I think would be a great idea, but would need to be monitored by instructors.
Marlene,
I do not think these would be Work Study students. However, That might be something decided at the school level.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
This is a great idea and one that I would like to use on our campus. Are the ambassadors work study students? This is a great retention tool! Selecting the right ambassador could really encourage that student who is undecided when working with the admissions department. After all they want a students opinion or perspective over ours.
Lise, I really like this idea. I can even see the ambassadors accompanying the admissions reps when touring prospective students for their respective programs. Can they be FWS?
Amy,
How do you recruit mentors? How do you train mentors?
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
We have a mentor program in our school for those who want to participate.
Lise,
Peer-to-peer communications of this nature are invaluable. New students learn from current students that success is possible.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
We have developed a Student Ambassador program where students from all of the programs we offer are chosen to be ambassadors or mentors for students. We also have our senior students meet the younger students in the program and help them with any questions or concerns that they may have. They also help in the lab for their hands on skills.
Kent,
Online for onground students? Or online for online? Would this be in a Learning Management System, a student web portal, or elsewhere? First, develop the parameters of the mentor program and identify how you would select mentors. Obviously, you might want some web savvy mentors or have training available.
Another option that might be quicker. Set up a Twitter account and use that. Maybe #(schoolname)mentor. You want ease of access and communication to be the key to a mentor program.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
I would like to start an online mentoring program but I am looking for some ideas before I launch this program off.
Any ideas???
Kent
Clifton,
This is a great idea. I am sure you will find success with this approach.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
I am in total agreement with the mentoring approach. I am in the second quarter of our peer mentoring program and it seems to work well. My program has an externship component and this quarter I am also using students who are on their externship to pair up with the students in line to go externship next quarter. I am hopeful that it will help allay that initial anxiety of going on the externships in the community. We will see how this works..
Michelle,
New students do listen to their peers. Upper level students often can express what we want students to know about what it takes to succeed so well.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
