Accessing Social Capital through the Academic Mentoring Process

Abstract

This article explores how mentors and mentees create and maintain social capital during the mentoring process. I employ a sociological conceptual framework and rigorous qualitative analytical techniques to examine how students of color and first-generation college students access social capital through mentoring relationships. The findings indicate that mentors and mentees enter into these relationships because they believe they can either provide or receive important academic knowledge and resources during the mentoring process.

Notes

∗The social class category refers to the mentors' and mentees' class of origin.