Resources

Mentoring Best Practices and Resources for College Access and Success

This research was collected and organized by Maine Campus Compact during Summer 2011. The five best mentoring practices to increase college access and success listed below were compiled from literature on effective mentoring strategies and issues in college access and success. Each link includes concrete ways to use the mentoring practice and a list of internet resources for mentors/mentees specific to that practice.

• Goal-Setting
  Establishing goals is an effective way for youth to build confidence and concretely evaluate their progress towards future aspirations. Mentors can be instrumental in helping their mentees create practical and challenging goals, especially surrounding academic achievement, career planning, and higher education. Whether or not a mentee achieves a goal, he or she can learn from making mistakes and accomplishments.
• Providing Resources for Mentees
  Because there are so 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 expensive, students should be exposed to as many education and career choices as possible.
• Encouraging Academic Pursuits
  Stressing the importance of education to youth is effective in increasing both college access and success. Mentors should inspire their mentees to be engaged with and excited about their academics.
• Active Learning
  Active learning is defined as “any activity that involves students in doing things and thinking about the things that they are doing.” Although mentors have no influence in the active learning techniques that are provided to students in the classroom, they can make connections between traditional academics and learning that takes place outside of the classroom (influence of active learning on college student).
• Exciting the Mentee about a Non-Academic Activity
  While involvement in schoolwork is instrumental in gaining postsecondary access and success, mentees should also be engaged in a healthy activity besides school. Being enthusiastic about an extracurricular activity steers students towards positivity and away from many of the negative influences (e.g., drugs, alcohol, violence, promiscuity) that plague today’s adolescents (The Search Institute, 2011).
• Annotated Bibliography (PDF)