Making Meaning through Mentorship: A Student-Led Layered Peer Mentorship Program

Abstract

Abstract This Complete Evidence-Based Paper presents research about a layered peer mentorship program for undergraduate engineering students at a public urban research university and provides data of ways that students have made meaning from their mentorship experiences. This mentorship program began in Fall 2019 and has grown to include the following layers: (a) first-year students who receive mentorship, (b) sophomore- and junior-level students who serve as mentors (all of whom received mentorship during their first year), (c) junior- and senior-level students who serve as lead mentors who design the program for that academic year (including content, group meetings, service projects, meeting schedules, etc.), (d) a graduate student who mentors and supervises the lead mentors, and (e) a faculty member who oversees the overall program, provides general guidance, and advises all the students. We will describe ways in which the participating students have made meaning of their experience in the program, highlighting three key areas: (1) the web of relationships formed, which cohere into a community; (2) students' transitions from receiving mentorship as first-year students to mentoring others in their sophomore and junior years; and (3) the feedback and iteration process by which the program has continuously developed, which forefronts student voice and agency. The paper will provide specific examples in each of the three key areas described; with a special focus on students' own descriptions of the meaning they have made through their participation in the mentorship program. Recommendations will also be shared for those interested in implementing similar programs on their campuses. The mentorship program forms a complex web of relationships between and among students, and how these relationships cohere (coalesce) into a felt community for students. These relationships are forged by various means in various contexts. First, each student who receives mentorship is a first-year student in the Engineering Learning Community (ELC). In the ELC, first-year students take a bundle of courses together, with specific sections of English composition, math, and a first-year design innovations course. Second, the students who receive mentorship are assigned peer mentors who are sophomore- and junior-level students who were previously in the ELC. Mentees and mentors meet regularly in both individual and group meetings, which affords both individual and group relationships to form. All these interplaying individual and group relationships form a rich, complex web which coheres into a community for students. Additionally, students also find meaning through their transition from mentee in their first year to mentor in their sophomore and junior years. This meaning is forged through personal growth, as well as through a reification of engineering identity when they are viewed as legitimate members of the community of engineering majors. When students become mentors, they transition into a position where first-year students look to them for advice, support, and encouragement. Mentors enact their identity as someone with experience who has valuable perspective to share. Mentors can feel more confident in their classes knowing that their status as an engineering major is respected and has been legitimated. Lastly, serving as a mentor is something students look forward to listing on their resume as a demonstration of teamwork and people skills which engineering employers so highly value. A third way students make meaning from the mentorship program is through the feedback and iteration process by which the program is continuously formed. At the end of each semester, students submit formal, anonymous, formative feedback on the program. The suggestions students make are implemented almost immediately, making this mentorship program responsive and adaptable. Students in the program know that their feedback is taken seriously, and that they have the power to create the mentorship program they find most helpful. Additionally, the lead mentors have nearly complete autonomy to organize, schedule, and run the program as they see fit. The upper layers of the program – the graduate student and the faculty member – provide support, advice, and resources, but the students are the ones iterating and forming the program. Through these means, the program has evolved in several ways, including the introduction of group meetings and a semesterly service project, which were the direct implementations of student ideas. This focus on student voice and agency enables students to build self-efficacy and make meaning from their experiences with the mentorship program.