Campus Engagement Tip: Mentoring for Women of Color

Mentorship is a high-impact practice for college students, and learning from someone with similar lived experiences to oneself can further instill confidence and growth. For some students who don’t see themselves as equally represented on college campuses, it can be difficult to connect with a professional mentor.

To address this concern for women of color, colleges and universities are pairing students with campus community members who share their identities and can encourage them in their career goals.

By the numbers: Young women face challenges and often lack faith in themselves and their abilities as they grow up. A February study by Être found the number of girls who say they feel smart dropped 50 percent from ages 13 to 18, and those who feel confident also fell 20 percent.

Mentorship, however, can help reverse that trend. Over 90 percent of respondents to Être’s study said they would be more confident with a mentor, and those who have a mentor said they feel confident to apply for an internship and speak in public.

Among Americans in general, 56 percent say they do not have a mentor and 34 percent say a lack of mentorship or lack of support from their professional network has held them back in their careers, according to data from the 2023 Career Optimism Index by the University of Phoenix.

Students of color from low-income backgrounds may experience even more barriers in identifying a mentor. An October 2023 study from Gallup and Amazon found young adults who grew up in poverty were also less likely to have someone with a successful career whom they looked up to, compared to their peers in well-off households.

Mentorship models: Here’s how three institutions are helping women of color to connect with mentors on campus.

Dimensions Mentoring Program, Syracuse University

Syracuse’s peer-to-peer mentoring program pairs incoming students with upper-level women who share similar interests, helping create a sisterhood among women of color at the university.

The program convenes weekly and offers activities to build leadership skills, critical thinking and self-confidence among learners while promoting their academic success and cross-cultural engagement. Dimensions is designed for women of color but it is open to all eligible students regardless of race, gender or other characteristics, according to the university’s website.

Msaada, Davidson College

A Kiswahili word for “to be of help,” Msaada is a program specifically for Black women at the college. Each participant is paired with a Black alumna based on their field of interest, professional aspirations and career goals. The program launched in 2021 and over the first two years partnered 50 pairs of mentors and mentees.

Mentors agree to work with the student for at least one year and provide the mentee with career guidance, insight into the field, networking opportunities and professional engagement, according to the program’s website.

Any student who is Black and identifies as female is eligible to apply, regardless of their class level at Davidson.

Her Garden: WOC Mentoring Initiative, Duke University

The name takes inspiration from Alice Walker’s collection In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, which paints a metaphor of Walker’s journey to find her identity through the legacy of the women of color who came before her. In the same way, Her Garden inspires women of color at Duke to flourish and grow in community.

To participate, undergraduate or graduate students must be women or femme-identifying and belong to a racial, ethnic or cultural identity that is considered marginalized in the U.S. Mentees participate in an orientation, a day of service and regular dinner speaker series events in addition to engaging with their mentor once a month.

Besides having regular in-person meetings with mentees, mentors complete a regular survey about the mentorship relationship and other programming.

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