Adjusting to college life can be challenging as students navigate living alone for the first time. However, mentors — who can be faculty, staff members, peers or alumni — can provide advice and guidance about campus life, academic tracks and career paths.
Mentors may also help students differentiate between good and bad information on the internet and social media, says Joanna Chiu, professor and chair in the department of entomology and nematology at the University of California, Davis.
Here’s what to know about the roles of mentors and how to find them on campus.
Roles of a College Mentor
A mentorship does not necessarily have to be formal, experts say.
“When you say, ‘have a mentor,’ people automatically think this needs to be something very formal,” says Connie Ledoux Book, president of Elon University in North Carolina. “But I do think there are all sorts of ways to effectively seek feedback from people. That’s one of the things I really encourage people to do … to improve their own self-awareness. Self-awareness is a secret weapon. If you have good self-awareness, then you bring that into every job interview, every professional setting and in your personal life. And to build self-awareness, you need good feedback.”
[READ: Campus Support Every First-Year College Student Should Use.]
Chiu, who is also the faculty recipient of the 2023 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research at UC Davis, suggests building a network of multiple mentors, as each has a different role to play.
Faculty mentors can share more about how to navigate life, while peer mentors provide advice on how to maneuver college life, says Richmond Hill, provost of the Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge Campus. For instance, students can ask their peer mentors about the best places to study on campus, where to buy inexpensive textbooks or how roommate selection works.
“A peer mentor is kind of more walking alongside of you through the journey versus a faculty mentor or alumni mentor who’s going to be outside of higher education, their own personal journey at that point, looking at it from a different dimension,” says Missy Gutkowski, assistant dean for experiential learning at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.
Faculty and staff mentors don’t necessarily have to be in a student’s area of study — they can connect through research or club interests. Alumni mentors, meanwhile, provide context to students on how what they learn in the classroom translates to actual career experiences, what employers are looking for and current industry challenges.
Ways to Find a College Mentor
For those attending a college without formal mentorship programs, Hill says it’s important to “identify someone that either embodies who you want to become — whether it’s by way of character, integrity, compassion, what they are doing in their community and how they present themselves — or someone who is in a career field that you desire to enter into or maybe that’s your goal.”
Experts suggest starting the search early and getting involved on campus — especially for students looking for a peer mentor.
[Read: Why Mentors Are Important for Premedical Students]
“Being a mentee, it doesn’t mean that you need help,” says Anjolina Fantaroni, a sophomore at Elon who was a mentor in the school’s First Phoenix mentorship program. “It means that you’re going out of your way and getting into programs that mean so much to you. You are going into programs that are going to help you in the long run. And as a mentor, you should never look down on your mentees. You should never not help them. Be there for them, whether it’s academicwise or extracurricularwise. In times of stress, be there to go get meals with and answer questions.”
When students first get to campus, they are typically given a faculty adviser — usually in their area of study. They can help refer students to other faculty or staff members with aligning career interests. Students can also approach professors after class.
“Given we are at a university, a big part of the job of professors is to actually educate and mentor,” Chiu says. “You would think it’s easy for students to find a mentor, but as a matter of fact, it’s not straightforward and easy at all. … The key for them to find good mentors is to identify professors, teaching assistants, grad students and postdoctoral fellows on campus who are particularly passionate about mentoring. They do exist. A lot of these individuals who really want to mentor folks often attend events on campus that are geared toward mentoring and career development.”
How to Communicate With a College Mentor
Students can start by asking their mentor about the rules of engagement, such as whether to communicate by email, text or phone calls, Hill says. They should also avoid digging too deeply into a mentor’s personal life.
“Through getting to know the mentor, and the mentor getting to know the mentee, you’ll kind of get an understanding of how comfortable the other person is with sharing on a personal level,” Hill says. “I think a large part of mentoring is sharing personal stories. But, for example, there may be some mentors out there — faculty, staff — that aren’t really interested in you knowing about their family or what they do on the weekend. They might want to be more focused on, ‘Hey, how do I connect you to this opportunity or help you navigate college?'”
[READ: 7 Guidelines for College Student-Professor Interactions.]
When connecting with classmates and other peers, students need to distinguish between mentorship and friendship, experts say.
“A mentorship is someone who you are looking to go (to) for advice at a different level,” Gutkowski says. “I always say a mentor is willing to have the hard conversation. Sometimes a friend is just willing to give you a hug and pat you on the back and say, ‘It’s been a hard day, let’s go order an ice cream.’ …. A mentor is going to have more information and guidance than typically a friend would.”
When Should Students Meet With Their College Mentor?
Every mentee-mentor relationship is different. Some may want to communicate weekly while others meet formally on a monthly basis.
However, don’t go to your mentor only when there’s a problem, Chiu says.
“It’s always good to just check in,” she says. “I would love to hear from my students, even if it’s just five minutes of how they are doing, because sometimes I can read from their conversation whether they are doing OK or not. Maybe you, yourself, don’t realize that you are really stressed … And the mentor would be able to tell you, especially if it’s someone who knows you well.”
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How to Find a Mentor in College originally appeared on usnews.com
