Prosocial advocacy communication and mentoring in higher education

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Notes

1. Miller (2008) refers to vocational socialization as the occupational information that individuals receive from childhood through early adulthood from family members, schools and education-related activities, peers, the media, and part-time work experiences. People evaluate what they learn about career and advanced education through the lenses of their self-concept and make decisions about what to do. In the educational context, vocational socialization, in essence, helps young people develop an ethos for the importance of higher education and learn the behaviors of successful students – including the importance of a mentor and the appropriate ways to seek one. Anticipatory socialization refers to how people collect information and develop a repertoire of appropriate behaviors specific to a particular industry or organization. In the educational context, anticipatory socialization involves how prospective students learn about their programs, faculty, and the norms for success within their disciplines and programs. First-generation students, those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, or students who face barriers of any sort to the kinds of informative experiences that contribute to vocational and anticipatory socialization may be underprepared and lack confidence to assertively pursue and initiate mentoring as undergraduates or graduate students.