ALTOONA, Pa. — As one of its strategies to improve student success, retention and persistence to timely graduation, Penn State Altoona today announced its participation in a new grant-funded peer mentorship project from the Association of Public and Land Universities (APLU). This novel program will support six public universities in piloting, refining and establishing peer mentorship models that address barriers to student success.
“I am extremely grateful to the APLU for funding our proposal and to Dani Fry and Peter Moran for spearheading the project locally,” said Ron Darbeau, chancellor at Penn State Altoona. “While the campus already has a number of successful mentorship models, our ‘Mentorship for All’ effort will provide students with additional guidance and support to increase their sense of belonging and encouragement to persistence”
In addition to Penn State Altoona, APLU is collaborating with Northern Illinois University, Stony Brook University, Temple University, The University Texas at San Antonio and Prairie View A&M University to advance technology-enabled peer mentorship models and collectively identify effective mentoring practices to share with the full APLU membership.
“We’re thrilled to partner with six public universities to pilot new peer mentoring efforts, track impact and refine programs,” said Karen Vignare, APLU vice president, Digital Transformation for Student Success. “Peer mentoring is a proven way to help students navigate the complexities and challenges of transitioning to, and progressing through, college. We’re excited to help institutions not only refine this work on their campuses and ultimately add to the evidence base for these efforts across the country.”
The three-year effort will help the institutions collaborate and share best practices as they implement their respective mentoring programs. Over the next six months, the institutions will focus on project design, team formation and setup before they launch their mentorship programs, track impact and use data to inform program refinement.
APLU will provide deep technical assistance to the institutions alongside Mentor Collective, a provider of a technology-enabled platform that gives institutions meaningful data to help them identify and address systemic barriers to student success. APLU has received support from ECMC Foundation to launch the Mentorship for Academic and Personalized Student Success (MAPSS) Initiative.
The MAPSS Initiative supports institutions as they participate in an APLU-led community of practice; build institutional capacity for sustainable mentorship programs; access Mentor Collective’s cutting-edge technology and support; integrate data-informed decision-making into overall student success strategies; and collaborate and share best practices with fellow APLU member campuses.
In addition to the peer-to-peer mentorship effort supported through the grant, Penn State Altoona is independently partnering with Mentor Collective to engage faculty, staff, alumni and community members to support student success.
Penn State Altoona’s mentoring program will offer robust wrap-around services to students, including academic check-ins, transition-to-college coaching, and general care and connection building. Mentees will have the opportunity to learn from seasoned mentors who will assist in navigating the college experience. Student mentors will be equipped to develop leadership and power-skills while serving others. These efforts will help all students adjust to the college environment more quickly and help them maximize their investment in the college experience.