A mentor is an experienced person who can provide students with specialized support to navigate their academic, social, and personal challenges in college.
Mentors come in all forms, such as professors, senior students, and education specialists, guiding college students in ways that parents might not be able to.
Keep reading until the end to understand what mentorship looks like, how it can help, and where to find one for yourself or your college-going child!
Mentorship vs. Parenting: What’s The Difference?
Parental support is one of the most important things a student needs during their transition to college. Still, it’s important to recognize that there are some things that parents can’t do, such as gaps that the right mentor can fill with their specialized knowledge.
The two are complementary, working hand-in-hand to position students for continued excellence in college. So, success depends on recognizing their differences and leveraging their advantages.
Parents share a close family relationship with their college-going children, supporting them in almost all aspects of life. They help students choose the right school, enrol in the most suitable course, and arrange their accommodations and finances.
A mentor, however, isn’t meant to provide such broad support. Instead, they have specialized knowledge in one or more areas directly related to the student’s college life and can provide guidance through a formal or semi-formal relationship with them.
Some parents might be able to fill both roles like if they graduated from the same institution with first-hand knowledge on navigating that particular academic environment.
But for those who can’t, finding the right mentor to guide their child could give them the winning edge over their peers.
How Mentorship Can Put You Ahead Of The Rest
It’s only natural for some people to believe that mentorship is unnecessary. That might be especially true with high achievers whose successes are largely self-made.
Still, even world champions rely heavily on mentors, so perhaps students can benefit from them, too.
For college students, mentorship not only leads to better attendance levels but also higher retention rates and, unsurprisingly, better grades (Venegas-Muggli et al., 2021).
But, not all benefits of mentorship are necessarily quantifiable. The support of a mentor in college helps students develop their self-efficacy and gives them a greater sense of belonging (Apriceno et al., 2020).
In other words, mentorship certainly helps students through the academic and logistical challenges of transitioning to college. Still, it can also support adjusting socially, one area where parental support might be less effective.
Where To Find Mentors
Students can find mentors almost everywhere, like among academic staff that they get along well with or seniors willing to share their experiences.
Students should also participate in any special programs their college prepares to match them with willing mentors.
Meanwhile, parents can also set their children up for success by engaging education specialists like Equity Metrics for the tailor-made mentorship their child needs to succeed in college.
References
Apriceno, M., Levy, S. R., & London, B. (2020). Mentorship during college transition predicts academic Self-Efficacy and sense of belonging among STEM students. Journal of College Student Development, 61(5), 643–648. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2020.0061
Venegas-Muggli, J. I., Barrientos, C., & Álvarez, F. (2021). The impact of Peer-Mentoring on the academic success of underrepresented college students. Journal of College Student Retention Research Theory & Practice, 25(3), 554–571. https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025121995988