Campus Engagement Tip: Train Student Mentors to Assist At-Risk Learners

First-year retention is an important metric in student success, particularly among students at a two-year institution. One way colleges and universities encourage retention among new students is through promoting feelings of belonging and connection to the institution and their peers.

Saddleback College in California launched a collegewide peer mentorship program in 2021 focused on disproportionately impacted students, or those determined to not be well served by the institution, with hopes to increase persistence and create a scalable initiative that could effect change. Staff shared the program’s logistics and outcomes in a session at NASPA’s Conferences for Student Success in Higher Education in Anaheim, Calif., in June.

Since launching, Saddleback has retained and engaged more students from underrepresented student groups and has grown returning students’ engagement and knowledge of institutional supports through an online flagging system.

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What’s the need: Saddleback College is a Hispanic-serving institution (31 percent Hispanic/Latino), and over a quarter of learners (27 percent) are nontraditional or adult learners.

College leaders identified a gap in retention and completion among four student groups: Latino/Hispanic and Black students, as well as first-generation learners and students who were over 25 years old.

“We weren’t serving our students equally, and our data was telling us that over and over,” said Nicola Perry, director of the Office of Student Success at Saddleback.

While the college offered one-off or group-based mentorship initiatives, there was no collegewide mechanism to provide peer support to learners from these groups. Some students were taking classes exclusively online or in a hybrid format as well, meaning whatever was offered needed to accommodate all modalities of learning.

Saddleback College leaders partnered with Mentor Collective to launch the program in November 2021.

How it works: The pilot program, which was approved for two years, kicked off in 2021, inviting students from the four disproportionately impacted groups to serve as mentors.

To be qualified as a mentor, students had to have a 2.5 cumulative grade point average or higher, have completed at least 24 units and be currently enrolled at the institution.

Mentors are volunteers but can be invited to serve as lead mentors, who are paid to take on additional responsibilities to manage and train other mentors. Lead mentors also support more mentees than the average volunteer.

Eligible students complete online training via Mentor Collective’s platform, which teaches them how to use the system. Each month, lead mentors also host an optional training session that focuses on a timely topic, such as mental health or finals, as they align with the academic calendar.

Incoming students are invited to join via email and complete an intake process that identifies students’ interests both academically and with their mentor. From there, Mentor Collective’s algorithm pairs mentees and mentors, with each mentor supporting around three to five students.

There is no requirement or guidance on how frequently a mentor should reach out to their mentee, and students can engage via text, email or in person.

Raising flags: One of the mentors’ most important responsibilities was creating alerts for full-time staff at the college to support students.

After engaging with a mentee, mentors can make a note of their conversations and any warning signs they noticed, such as a student needing basic needs or academic help. (Mentor Collective’s texting platform is an encrypted system, so students’ messages cannot be directly read, but staff receive alerts if students use concerning language or talk about inappropriate or dangerous situations.)

The college’s student success coaches respond to every flag a student raises in the system and pass details on to relevant offices.

Staff learned that students are most likely to share their struggles with a peer, helping create awareness around concerns in the institution and getting students connected to those who can address issues.

The impact: In the first year, the program was open to 9,000 students. Of those who participated, 80 percent retained from their first semester and 69 percent retained from spring to fall.

Across all racial groups, fall-to-spring and spring retention was also higher among mentees compared to their peers who didn’t opt in to the program, showing the influence the program could have on closing equity gaps.

The program, in addition to supporting incoming students, created a new safety net for returning students. One mentor created a flag in the system to highlight their own struggles, helping connect them to care and support within the institution in a way they wouldn’t have been able to before.

“By raising one flag, we’re actually helping two students learn more about the resources on their campus to help themselves and others,” Perry shared.

The initiative has worked so well, the college plans to open up mentoring to any student who wants to participate, not just those from specific identity groups.

Lessons learned: After the initial pilot year, staff made changes to improve the system based on student and staff feedback, which included:

• Improving outreach. In the first year, students were hesitant to opt in to the program because the initial outreach email felt spammy, staff shared. Moving forward, staff engaged with other campus stakeholders including basic needs staff and faculty members to promote the mentorship program, helping build awareness and encourage participation.
• Changing mentor requirements. The program continues to see high demand for mentors, and to date it has yet to match every interested student with a mentor. For the second year of the program, leaders changed mentorship prerequisites to allow more students to serve as mentors, based on student feedback and a need for additional mentors to support new students. The credit requirement was reduced to 18 units and students only had to achieve a 2.2 GPA instead. “Just because a student struggled a bit doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot of value to provide to another student,” explained Chris Hargraves, director of the Office of Student Development.
• Creating more student leadership roles. Over the years, staff have grown paid opportunities for mentors, including the lead mentor position. Lead mentors increase the student voice and engagement in program development, as well as help ensure all mentors are trained, engaged and connected to supports should they need it. In the future, leaders are considering a role for a “super mentor,” who would also support 10 mentees.
• Centering the coach in responses. A student success coach responds to each flagged student and their needs, but more recently Saddleback’s coaches have been responding to students by their academic division, helping create familiarity and community with each school-specific staff member. Saddleback currently has five coaches, one for each of the academic schools.

Other future priorities for the program include promoting in-person engagement between mentorship pairs, focusing on student wellness and boundaries for mentors, and creating cohort-based groups that match students who belong to specific programs.

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