Numerous studies have examined mentoring relationships and their consequences for youth development (Rhodes and DuBois, 2008).  DuBois and Silverthorn (2005) found that those who reported having had a mentoring relationship during adolescence exhibited significantly better outcomes within the domains of education and work (high-school completion, college attendance, employment), mental health (self-esteem, life satisfaction), problem behavior (gang membership, fighting, risk taking), and health (exercise, birth control use) (Rhodes and DuBois, 2008).  Currently, research focusing on mentoring programs of African American fraternities does not exist.  Also, limited research is available on mentoring programs and the characteristics that influence the relationship between the mentor and youth.  For this study in progress, I am examining the role of a mentoring group, in this case, a fraternal organization with the objective to promote positive social development among African American boys.  Data collection for this study includes transcripts from observational notes, interviews, and focus groups.  A Self-Perception Profile for Children and the Mentor Youth Alliance Scale (MYAS) will also be administered to the mentees.  The data will be analyzed to identify the variables that affect the 30 mentees’ participation and positive social development in the fraternal organization’s mentoring club.

Student teaching is often referenced as one of the most formational experiences for teacher preparation, yet cooperating teachers (mentoring teachers), university supervisors, and student teachers often have differing, unspoken expectations regarding the mentoring teacher’s role in this experience. When the expectations of the aforementioned three stakeholders for the role of mentor are not aligned, strong and productive relationships are more difficult to develop. Since the alignment of expectations provides the basis for collaboration, teacher preparation programs must foster this alignment of expectations in order to meet Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) standards for the mastery of collaborative skills. Previous research has investigated cooperating teacher and student teacher expectations for collaboration. However, less information is available regarding the expectations for collaboration that university supervisors hold for the role of the cooperating teacher. This study examined the expectations of university supervisors regarding collaboration within the student teaching/mentoring experience. Based on a focus group and structured interviews, and utilizing InTASC competencies as the investigative framework, three themes incorporating a range of practices emerged from the participating supervisors’ expectations for collaboration: learning environments, professional dispositions, and assessment practices. This study offers a preliminary clarification of these three themes — addressing the need to align expectations for collaboration and to cultivate practices that support collaboration within the student teacher experience. In doing so, the study suggests that young professionals need to work with mentoring teachers who have expertise in practices that support collaboration.

This paper argues that mentoring programs in the humanities often serve to strengthen the academic hierarchy, rather than to stimulate the intellectual development of members of the next generation. Having lost an essential component of its traditional meaning, the word mentor often stands for the opposite of what it was intended to mean. Instead of urging mentees to be intellectually independent, the mentor often merely assists in the mentee’s conformity to the apparatuses of the academy. What is needed at universities is less obedience to the apparatus and more critical attention to what younger faculty and students are actually experiencing and producing under its procedures. Anonymous questionnaires should be sent to the mentees in mentoring programs and efforts should be made to allow the mentoring relationship to develop organically, rather than having mentors assigned.

This paper outlines a unique mentoring collaboration between a joint-use community-university library, a university branch of the American Association of University Women (aauW), and PACE Center for Girls Broward, Florida, “a non-residential delinquency prevention program, targeting females 12 to 18 who are identified as dependent, truant, runaway, delinquent, or in need of academic skills” (PACE, 2013). The collaboration has provided much-needed support for PACE girls and women college students who are primarily first generation and minorities at higher risk of not earning their college degrees. Anecdotal evidence and pre- and post-surveys indicate all students gaining an increased understanding of their personalities, values and strengths. Students, faculty and staff report students have and show a stronger sense of self- confidence and commitment to their education. 

Since 2006, undergraduate education students from Texas A&M University have traveled to many countries in Europe and China following intensive preparation courses in which they study and research the literature, art, history, and culture of a particular country.  These trips involve working in schools with students from other countries and touring and visiting sites of historical significance. Students are required to write a reflection on how these experiences have changed their stereotypes of other cultures and helped them to be prepared to teach in diverse settings. These personal stories of their changed beliefs are significant in a global teaching milieu.

This paper presents a method of mentorship to create developmental relationships with student teams. The Collaborative Team Projects are designed to have moments where quality, cost, and time collide. The mentors’ strategy is to build strong and stable relationships that will guide the students to work as a team. The mentors’ charge is to create an environment where the process of the team collaboration is a road map for the mentees’ to follow to complete deliverables. The idea is by examining how the teams’ makes decisions under pressure; the mentor can learn how the team works together and guide them to positive outcomes. Instructional scaffolding is used to guide the students through directed, then self-directed learning. The scaffolding process includes having the teams’ work together doing in class collaborative assignments. Using the theory of proximal development the team members develop relationships that provide learning opportunities within the team. By doing a series of team assessments throughout the process the mentor can ascertain if the goals are being attempted and completed. To be a good team member the students must develop their personnel skills including: creating an environment where honesty is second nature, presenting a good attitude and consistently following through with their personnel assignments that contribute to the whole. At the end of the process the teams’ reflect on their individual and team performance. This paper will present examples and processes used in class for nurturing student production teams.

After a decade of experiences visioning, dialoguing, collaborating with communities in a multitude of planning situations, the lessons  assembled here emerged chronologically, by locations, stops and then, serendipitously, by parallel recall of other venues’ significant points.   As a practicing architect and educator in the field, work with communities reconfirms what a crucial role the architectural dialoguing and visioning can play in addressing the unique needs of all communities as they confront planning. During my career as private practitioner, and then as a professor of studio and professional practice in academia, I have had a stream of experiences and dialogues with cities, suburbs, communities and rural towns about a wide array of architectural and planning challenges and opportunities.  These experiences taught me the importance of understanding such processes as: (1) Observation  (2) How to Communicate to and Visualize the Plan to the Community: Scaled Physical Model as Best Modality (3) Pre-work Dialogue (4) Phases of the Architectural-Community Processes  (5) Grant Strategizing  (6) Participants and Stakeholders (7) Hindsight While working with different municipalities has made me realize that a “one size fits all” approach does not work, my journey convinces me that certain core issues arise in each architect/planner community exchange.  In what follows I describe a suggested “basic tool kit/treasure chest” of strategies and observations for successfully working and communicating with diverse communities.  From my academic perspective, I hope it demonstrates at the same time why architects and the work we do is vitally important to the quality of our lives.

The failure rate for newly appointed leaders is alarmingly high. According to a Harvard Business Review study, two out of every five new executives fail in the first 18 months (Charan, 2005).  Some of the reasons for this include inability to handle internal politics, uncertainty about company expectations, and failure to build appropriate networks. Virginia Commonwealth University’s “Fast Track” Executive Master of Science in Information Systems (FTEMS-IS) program combines an aggressive academic curriculum with practical industry insight, coaching, leadership development, mentoring, and numerous networking opportunities. This unique combination of elements helps our students understand the decision making process, how to develop effective communication strategies, and the powerful new role IS and IS leaders can play in an organization.  The entire program – from concept to content development and delivery – has been done in direct collaboration with area IT executives, who also serve as mentors for our students.  Students are paired one-on-one with a Chief Information Officer (CIO), with whom they meet once a month.  Students and their mentors discuss career aspirations, and how best to achieve them; leadership challenges (both student and mentor) and how best to beat them; and general personal and professional development goals. Students have an opportunity to go beyond the program requirements and build deep, lasting relationships with their mentors.  Our CIO mentors have mastered the business, technical, and leadership skills necessary to be outstanding IT leaders. They have agreed to share their time and experiences with our students to help them master these skills as well.

Peer mentoring programs in university settings provide a mechanism to promote social support and engage students in the educational environment. The purpose of this three-year longitudinal study, now in its second year, is to increase social support through a peer-to-peer mentoring program for students in an undergraduate baccalaureate nursing program. A pre-test/post-test design with a convenience sample was used to determine if social support increased as a result of participating in the peer mentoring program. Freshmen nursing students were matched with upperclassmen at the beginning of the academic year. There were a total of 137 participants in the program. Training was provided to mentors, including diversity education.  In addition to encouraging mentors to be involved with their mentee monthly, three events were held throughout the academic year.  The Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL), College Version (Cohen, 1983), was administered at the beginning and end of the academic year to determine if perceived social support increased among both mentors and mentees.  The data analysis plan will include a paired t-test to examine the academic year changes in ISEL scores and subscales in a longitudinal study design.  The research will include a comparison of the measured social support outcomes by each captured demographic variable. Preliminary results found a 96% persistence rate of freshmen nursing students who participated in the program.  

At Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre, new students (freshmen and junior college transfers) face the sudden impact of a production-heavy program in addition to the usual adjustments to college life. This appears to affect student success and retention adversely. Our Peer Mentoring Program was implemented to address some of the causes of confusion for students entering the program. In the spring of 2013, we launched a limited Peer Mentoring Council to offer guidance to second-semester students who chose to participate. We selected three approachable student mentors and assigned each of them six mentees. The mentors met with them at regular intervals throughout the semester to assist in disseminating information.  The program produced mixed results. The mentees who took full advantage of the program saw success, but many of the mentees did not participate actively in the program and were much less successful. Nevertheless, this abbreviated pilot mentoring program provided us with many insights that we will incorporate into a full-year program. The conclusions reached in this initial semester have produced a detailed set of needs for next year.  20 students have applied to be mentors for the 2013-14 school year. We are gathering resource materials and applying for a grant to support the Mentoring Council. The process outlined in my presentation will demonstrate the birth of a mentoring program in an undergraduate theatre program.