How Natural Mentoring is Used by Latinx Youth at a Community Technology Center

ABSTRACT

Mentoring is widely cited as a strategy to increase the representation of Latinx in technology, but the role of informal relationships with adults outside their family remains unclear. This study explores how natural mentoring is utilized by Latinx youth at a community-based organization, including the perspectives of both mentors and mentees, what it looks like, and the implications for students’ education and career pathways in the technology sector. The findings describe the motivations, strategies, and ideologies of the adults in informal learning settings, as well as similarities and differences in the perspectives of the mentors and mentees.

KEYWORDS:

• Latinx
• mentors
• technology education

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Julie Shattuck for conducting the interviews, Louise Ann Lyon for help with data analysis, as well as the mentors and mentees who took the time to be interviewed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation[grant no #1543001].