• Holistic Developmental Relationships for Successful Minority Scholars
    Posted on January 1, 2013

    Developmental relationships are essential to the healthy transition of all individuals. This is especially true as students transition from high school, to and through college, and as they move on to their professional life beyond college. At Indiana University, we have over 800 high-achieving underrepresented students who make up the Hudson and Holland Scholars Program (HHSP) and have found success in providing a variety of programs and services to assist these transitioning students utilizing a holistic framework based on student success. The Holistic Philosophy of Scholar Success (HoPSS) program is built as part of a partnership with the IU School of Public Health-Bloomington. It engages students individually and in groups through a variety of educational programs based on the six dimensions of wellness. Proposed by Hettler (1976), these six include the: physical, emotional, intellectual, social, occupational and spiritual dimensions. The program acknowledges the scholar as a whole person with dynamic relationships who possesses the characteristics of successful students (Downing, 2011) and delivers programs utilizing a public health lens. This paper provides specific components of the HoPSS model, evaluation tools and results. The hope is to share our model, allow for discussion at the Mentoring Conference 2013, and initiate ongoing conversation about how to support relationship development among high achieving underrepresented students.