"Care and authenticity is something that I was seeking": Mentoring experiences of African American undergraduate students studying agriculture at an 1862 Land Grant Institution

Studies show that mentoring has a significant impact on the educational successes of minority students and the development of their personal and professional identity within their particular field of study. Within these mentoring relationships an environment is created to where students feel comfortable to discuss their various personal concerns that impact their matriculation through their undergraduate experience in a variety of ways. The purpose of this study is to document the experiences of undergraduate African American students majoring in agriculture while enrolled at a predominately white land grant institutions and explore opportunities for using mentoring as a tool and factor in assisting these students in persisting towards their undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech. The foundation of the study was based on Bean and Eaton's Psychological Model of Retention and Rodgers and Summers' Revised model of retention for African American students at PWIs. Findings from this study were articulated by students conceptualization of mentors as a supportive guide in contrast to procedural advising relationships, additionally how students have experiences mentorship with mentors with a range of identities; student interactions within their colleges and departments as well as their both indirect and direct mentorship experiences; their support, interaction and connection to the African American community on campus during their undergraduate tenure; and how the university's bureaucratic structure has an impact on their experience as African American students.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Life Sciences

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Agricultural and Extension Education

Department dc:contributor.department

Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Harris, Kayla Michelle

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Scherer, Hannah H.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Shushok, Frank X.
• Alston, Antoine J.
• Westfall-Rudd, Donna M.

• 1862 Land Grant Institutions
• mentorship
• African American agriculture
• undergraduate experience
• undergraduate matriculation

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:21473

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/90798