Mentoring within the Minority Population: How to Retain and Matriculate Minorities in a College Setting

<p>In an ever-changing educational environment, it is pertinent that higher education institutions proactively implement strategies and programs that foster growth for the modern day college students. The establishment of effective support mechanisms is an essential component to aid in the development of students. Minority students, in particular, have shown a growing need to receive additional guidance outside of the traditional adherents (i.e., parents, personal ambition, educational advisors, etc). Historically, mentorship has been more prevalent in the private sector, used as a means to groom subordinates to take on new roles within their respective companies. However, assessment and the positive impact of such programs have led to an increasing number of emerging mentorship initiatives throughout the collegiate arena. Assessment of institutional operations and its impact, including applied strategies, programs and initiatives, is critical in gauging the level of funding received from the government.</p> <p>This research is focused on assessing the attitudes, characteristics, and conversation topics of minorities as it pertains to mentorship. The study takes place at the third largest institution in the University System of Georgia, Kennesaw State University, during the Fall semester of 2011. A total of 95 minority students participated in the study by filling out a survey questionnaire. The data collected from the study indicated that minorities credit a large portion of their successful attainment of a college degree to their mentor/mentee relationship. Moreover, the research findings suggest that higher education institutions should strongly consider utilizing mentoring-as-a-retention-and-matriculation-improvement-instrument.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Public Administration (MPA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Political Science

Year dc:date.available

2011

Author dc:creator

• Obleton, Brent Matthias

• education
• minority students
• student support
• mentoring
• surveys
• Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/etd/484

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu:etd-1485