The role of social community and individual differences in minority mentoring programs

Abstract

Researchers have examined various outcomes of undergraduate minority mentoring programs. However, there is a significant gap in research about how program members with different demographic backgrounds may not have the same experiences or outcomes as other members despite being subject to the same program elements. To address these gaps, we employed a social community framework to examine the differences across the perceptions of connectedness to a social community and participant outcomes of members of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Merit Program (MP) for Emerging Scholars. An ANOVA was performed for a study sample of n = 179 current and past MP participants. Results indicated a need to: (a) find ways to translate experiences to lower performing groups, (b) identify other approaches to build resilience and encourage connections and engagement in communities of practice, and (c) explicitly educate all participants in the importance of social community in their professional development.

Keywords:

• Mentoring
• minority mentoring programs
• social community

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Jennifer McNeilly and the other coordinators of the UIUC Merit Scholars Workshop Program for their cooperation and assistance with this study.