Mentoring Best Practices and Resources for College Access and Success
Providing Resources for Mentees
Because there are many obstacles in the way of college access and success, it is helpful for mentors to provide mentees with a base of knowledge about higher education. Teaching youth about the financial aspects of planning for college (i.e., FAFSA, loans, merit aid, financial aid, grants, and budgeting) is especially important. Additionally, because postsecondary options are expansive, students should be exposed to as many education and career choices as possible.
How does a mentor provide mentees with adequate resources for college access and success?
- Share knowledge about obtaining scholarships, financial aid, loans, and/or grants. Guide mentees through filling out financial applications and the FAFSA (National Mentoring Partnership & Baylor University, 2004; Tinto & Engle, 2008; Salinitri, 2005).
- Mentors can act as facilitators of resources within a high school, college, or university. (Salinitri, 2005; Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis, 2005; Savitz-Romer, Jager-Hyman, & Coles, 2009)
- What programs are available in high schools and the surrounding community to help students gain access to college? Be aware of and promote these to mentees (e.g., college counselors, guidance counselors, tutoring services or homework help to increase academic standing, standardized test preparatory courses, college fairs, college workshops).
- What programs are available in colleges and universities to help students persist in postsecondary education? Be aware of and promote these to mentees (e.g., tutoring services, writing or math workshops, peer editing systems, cultural or religious support groups).
- Promote and teach good study habits and time management skills (Salinitri, 2005; Savitz-Romer, Jager-Hyman, & Coles, 2009).
- Arrange job shadows or take a mentee to work so that he or she can see the importance of education and hard work (Miller, Martin, Ames, & Alter, 1999).
- Expose students to the college environment through college planning and college visits. Planning should start as early as possible, preferably as soon as a student enters high school (The Mitchell Institute, 2002).
Why is providing resources for mentees is an effective way to increase college access and/or success?
- One of the biggest barriers to college access in Maine is not planning ahead about how to finance postsecondary education and/or coming from a family with limited resources for college (The Mitchell Institute, 2002).
- Financial barriers often cause students’ aspirations to be mismatched with where they are able to financially enroll in college (The Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, 2010).
- The students of working poor families do not have enough money to pay for college but may not be able to receive adequate financial support. Compared with 61% of students below the poverty level, only 55% of working poor students receive Pell Grants. Working poor students have noted the importance of programs that teach prospective college attendees about financial support and college access (McSwain & Davis, 2007).
- Often, college is not perceived as affordable. Providing as much financial literacy as possible can help families budget and find financial aid sources so that college is attainable (The Mitchell Institute, 2002).
- Only 65% of the 80% of students at South Portland High School (Maine) who are qualified to go to college go. This is usually because of financial concerns, some of which could be alleviated with early planning and access to financial aid (Sanoff, 2003).
- Those students who fight against unmet financial needs when enrolled in a postsecondary institution often work off-campus jobs. Students who work more than 15 hours per week are more likely to drop out of school (Sanoff, 2003).
- Parents who are not involved in a student’s college planning can act as a huge barrier to college access. Although a mentor should not try to be a mentee’s parent, a mentor can assist in creating higher education plans when parents do not have adequate time or knowledge (The Mitchell Institute, 2002).
- Young adults in Maine who did not go to college after high school are more likely to express that they wished they had started planning earlier (The Mitchell Institute, 2002).
- Proactive students and parents are at an advantage for college access. The Mitchell Institute argues that youth and their families should understand the importance of being heavily involved in the college process by visiting colleges and attending college workshops (The Mitchell Institute, 2002).
- Students are more likely to engage in learning if they understand that education will lead directly to a career in the “real world.” A concrete way to display that academics are related to occupations is through a job shadow or a career exploration exercise (Larson, 2011).
- Students claim that the one of the most useful tools that their mentors provide them with is study and organization strategies (Salinitri, 2005).
More Resources on this Topic:
Overall Guides:
- http://www.collegeboard.com/student/index.html?student
- The Maine Educational Opportunity Center offers a variety of free workshops all over Maine. Subjects include essentials of college planning, career exploration, study skills, and financial aid.
http://meoc.maine.edu/schedule.php - The three main tabs are titled “Why Go to College,” “What to Do for College Admission,” and “How to Pay for College.”
http://www.college.gov - Sallie Mae’s College Answer provides information about preparing for college, selecting a postsecondary path, applying for and paying for college, and deciding on a school. The website includes information on the FAFSA, college checklists, budgeting calculators, a scholarship search, and answers about community college.
http://www.collegeanswer.com/ - An extremely usable website. KnowHow2GO is organized into sections by grade level (i.e., middle school, freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors). Each section includes tabs listing the benefits of postsecondary education, student success stories, and what a student should be doing to prepare for college.
http://www.knowhow2go.org/seniors_ready.php - The National College Access Program Directory allows students, mentors, and parents to search for college access programs by location, services offered, target populations served, program times, program operators, program funding, parent services, program challenges, keyword, or program name. Search listings include location and contact information.
http://www.collegeaccess.org/accessprogramdirectory/search.aspx
Paying for College:
- A database containing 1.5 million scholarships worth $3.4 billion. By signing up and completing a Fastweb profile, a student is matched with scholarships. Fastweb also has information on financial aid, college selection, and college budgeting. Fastweb can be extremely overwhelming, so it is best to have someone who is familiar with the website present the first time a student attempts to use it.
http://www.fastweb.com - “You Can Deal with It” provides information about student aid options as well as tips for budgeting and saving.
http://www.youcandealwithit.com/ - FAFSA website that allows students to start and submit a Free Application for Financial Student Aid.
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ - Search database for federal grants. Students can search by keyword, category, agency, specific criteria, and recovery act opportunities.
http://grants.gov/applicants/find_grant_opportunities.jsp - Provides contact information for higher education programs by state. Students can contact programs to find out about state-issued grants.
http://wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/Programs/EROD/org_list.cfm?category_ID=SHE - Resources about applying for federal student aid and repaying student loans.
http://federalstudentaid.ed.gov/students.html - The FAFSA4caster provides an early estimate of a student’s eligibility for federal student financial aid.
https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cForm?execution=e1s1 - Student Aid on the Web provides information from the U.S. Department of Education for preparing and funding postsecondary education. This website includes a financial aid and scholarship wizard, a career finder, a college savings calculator, a college matching wizard, information about the FAFSA, and loan repayment advice.
http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/ - The Federal Student Aid PIN Web site. Allows a student or his or her parents to apply for a PIN, which can be used each year to electronically apply for Federal Student Aid records online.
http://www.pin.ed.gov/PINWebApp/pinindex.jsp
Career/Education Planners:
- Contains information and tools to support career exploration and planning as well as college exploration and planning. Students can search careers by salary, experience and education needed, and skills required. Education Planner also provides concrete ways that students can work towards careers (e.g., job shadowing and internships). The “Preparing for School” section of the website contains advice about searching for and visiting colleges and information about all standardized tests. The “Paying for School” section includes budgeting calculators and information about grants, scholarships, and financial aid. Education Planner is also useful because it links specific parts of the CollegeBoard website that may be difficult to discover.
http://www.educationplanner.com - A calendar that prioritizes and lists what students should be doing for college admission by date according to their expected college entrance date.
http://www.aessuccess.org/plan_for_college/calendar_explained.shtml - Career exploration, preparation for college by grade level, college payment information, money management tips, and tips for being successful in college.
http://www.mappingyourfuture.org/
Standardized Tests:
- Understand the difference between the ACT and the SAT.
http://www.actstudent.org/faq/answers/actsat.html - Vocabulary flashcards for standardized tests. Includes flashcards organized by Latin prefix.
http://flashcards.dictionary.com/learn/viewtopic/229/psat-flashcards/ - Free practice exams for all standardized tests.
http://www.4tests.com - By registering, a student can gain access to SAT/ACT practice tests and flashcards, information about college admissions and financing, and an online standardized exam preparation course that is customized to a student’s needs.
http://www.march2success.com/