UIndy Mentor Collective connects incoming students with network of mentors

The UIndy Mentor Collective is an online mentorship program that matches incoming students with upper-classmen peers to help students set and achieve their goals, both academic and personal.

Incoming students in the program will now have ongoing access to a network of mentors trained to offer guidance and advice. Students will be matched with a personal mentor based on common academic interests, career goals, life challenges, and experiences. Students can also use the platform’s discussion guides and goal-setting activities to spark meaningful conversations with their mentors. Topics range from time management and work-life balance to networking and job-seeking advice.

You can read more about Mentor Collective here.

Mentor Collective assesses for sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and career decision self-efficacy because they have been shown in academic literature to be closely connected to better retention rates, melt rates, higher academic success, and positive career outcomes. This ensures that the mentorships being formed are having an impact on these critical elements of the holistic student experience.

According to a recent study, mentorship is increasingly recognized as a high-impact practice in higher education, showing positive correlation with retention, academic performance, sense of belonging, and psychosocial support.

Adding to this list of positive outcomes associated with mentorship, a recent meta-analysis of quasi-experimental results from six Mentor Collective programs found a strong correlation between mentoring and reduced melt rates. These programs, launched over the summer months of 2019, covered a range of institution types and locations, including Eastern Michigan University, Montclair State University, the University of Colorado at Denver, and Tufts University.

For example, from a total sample size of nearly 5,000 students, Mentor Collective saw an overall average reduction in melt rates of 13.79% among mentored students. In a Bayesian analysis where result contributions were weighted by program size, mentored students saw a 9.36% reduction in melt overall. 

On top of all the hard data, UIndy students themselves have great things to say about the program as well.

“My mentor helped me figure out how to balance school and work. She’s very helpful.”
– Mentee Kylee Collinsworth about mentor Brooklyn Chittenden 

“I have helped my mentee set an informal goal to re-prioritize aspects of her life, such as putting school and classes above working and trying to focus on further immersing herself into the UIndy community in order to form a support system within her academics.”
– Mentor Mary Walker about mentee Abbey Ruddell

Interested in getting involved or just want more information? Contact Jessica Ward: wardjl@uindy.edu