Building Bridges Mentoring Program

The Building Bridges Mentoring Program matches first-year students with faculty from the departments that the students wish to explore as possible majors. The program is based on the works of three major theorists, Vincent Tinto (1993) and Ernest Pascarella, Patrick Terenzini, & James Hibel (1978) who believe that educational communities and academic engagement with faculty are central to having a positive college experience and impact academic performance. In practice, Building Bridges continues the research of Terrell Strayhorn and Melvin Terrell (2007) which concludes that academically focused relationships are superior to informal personal mentoring in terms of students’ satisfaction with college.

The primary goals of the program are to help students develop skills to communicate effectively with faculty and to assist students with their discernment of a major. To meet these goals, students schedule monthly meetings with their faculty mentors, their peer mentors, and their peer groups. Through these meetings, students explore opportunities designed to give them experiences that will help them make informed decisions.

All incoming first-year students are invited to apply for the Building Bridges Mentoring Program. Applications will be due Sunday, July 12th, 11:59 pm. 

Apply here today!

Additional Stories:

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Building Bridges Peer Mentor Elected Student Government President

Second Building Bridges Peer Mentor Selected as Rhodes Scholar

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Peer Mentor Prathm Juneja named Rhode Scholar

The Building Bridges Mentoring Program receives the Presidential Irish Award