By Jean Rhodes September
13, 2015
The field of mentoring owes a great debt to the Gallup-Purdue Index, a study whose goal
is to “to conduct the largest representative study of college graduates in
United States history.” To date, the team has surveyed 60,000 college
graduates, resulting in a 2014 report and another report to be released in the
coming weeks. The 2014 report highlights the vital role of mentors in college
students’ graduation, ongoing engagement in work, and overall wellbeing.
As the lead author notes, “We learned that if
graduates felt “supported”
during college — by professors who cared, made them excited about learning and
who encouraged them to pursue their goals and dreams — their odds of being
engaged in work more than doubled, as did their odds of thriving in their
well-being. This finding was true of graduates of all ages and years of
graduation; in other words, it’s a career- and life-trajectory game changer.”
In the more recent report, life success was determined
by conventional markers (e.g., employment, salary) as well as students’ reports
about their satisfaction with
·
their relationships,
·
their physical health,
·
their community,
·
their economic situation
·
and their sense of purpose.
Once again, college mentors emerged as a key
factor accounting for better outcomes overall and greater satisfaction. In
particular, as previewed by Frank Bruni in a recent NYTimes column,
satisfaction was predicted, in part by students’ college experience,
including whether or not the student
·
developed a relationship with a
mentor;
·
took on a project that lasted a
semester or more;
·
did a job or internship directly
connected to their chosen field;
·
or became deeply involved in a
campus organization or activity
Although readers are cautioned to consider the self-selection biases inherent in survey’s
of this nature (i.e., better students seek out mentors and deep
involvement in projects), the report found that these effects emerged
regardless of the students’ personality.
Unfortunately, less than a quarter of national
graduates strongly agreed that had received the support of mentors who
encouraged them to pursue their goals and dreams . Given the vital influence of
mentors for educational achievement, career success, and overall life
satisfaction, we need to both teach students to “fish” for a support and
to stock the pond with caring adults. Here are a few suggestions.
1.
Teach students to “fish”–although
star students will always find their way to faculty mentors, many students are
left behind. Some simply don’t see the value or are too busy. Others feel less
entitled or are too embarrassed. To resolve this, colleges should provide
training in the skills necessary to do so. Along these lines, my
colleagues and I have been developing and evaluating a semester-long course in
social networking for college students.
2.
Stock the pond–College networks
include many caring adults–not just professors but academic staff, graduate
students, advisors, alumni, parents, and others who can serve in this capacity.
With additional structure, encouragement, incentives, and training, the the
true caring potential of college campuses can be more fully realized.
As the Gallup data, mentors are a key active
ingredient in college success, and their influence pays forward across
the lifetime. As such, we cannot leave this ingredient to chance.
Learning how to recruit and effectively engage with mentors and other
caring adults, and how to build what Murphy and Kram refer to as a
“developmental network,” is every bit as important as learning many other
subjects, perhaps even more so.
Ret. 9-18-15
