Bonner Alumni Mentoring Program

Proposal

Introduction Concept Since 1990, Bonner Programs on more than 65 campuses have supported low income and diverse students’ access to college, leadership, and post graduate success while also engaging them in making positive contributions through community service and engagement. The Bonner Foundation is currently exploring the idea of developing a Bonner Alumni Connections Program. This initiative aims to connect Bonner Alumni in productive and meaningful ways (though mostly online) with current Bonner students. Its purpose is to foster connections that can support mentors and mentees’ personal and professional development and well­being. Rationale and Supporting Research This proposed program draws on research that demonstrates the importance of mentoring within the Bonner Program and as a best practice in higher education. A large scale Gallup­Purdue study in 2015 found that “When it comes to being engaged at work and experiencing high well­being after graduation, the type of institution they attended matters less than what they experienced there.” Three support factors are shown to be most important:

having at least one professor who made one excited about learning, believing that professors (or staff) cared about one as a person, having a mentor that encouraged one to pursue hopes and dreams

Additionally, three experiential factors mattered the most:

working on a project that took more than a semester to complete having an internship or job that allows one to apply learning from the classroom being extremely active in extracurricular activities and organizations

Yet, just 3% of all the graduates studied said they had experienced all six of these factors. (See more at http://www.gallup.com/poll/168848/life­college­matters­life­college.aspx and download full report).

Enhancing Mentoring in the Bonner Network by Engaging Alumni Fortunately, the Bonner Program builds in many of these factors because of our structure as a cohort based program; caring and active staff and faculty; and community engagement over a four year model. Many programs do build in mentoring structures ­ by staff, faculty, partners, and peers ­ but these can vary across campuses. We have an opportunity to enhance our mentoring through connecting Bonner Scholars and Leaders with Bonner Alumni. Since its founding in 1990, the Bonner Programs around the country have graduated more than 15,000 alumni. They work in all fields and live in many different states (and abroad). Additionally, our own research and assessment demonstrates that these alumni’s career and life choices have been influenced by their experiences in the Bonner Program. Virtually 100% remain active in civic life, and 90% voted in the most recent election. The program affected their values (such as social justice) and desire to be “civic­minded professionals.” Connecting these alumni with current students could further enhance the Bonner impact for current students. Additionally, as to be explored later, a survey of current Bonners and Alumni revealed strong interest in connecting.

Research In designing this initiative, we examined other programs that intentionally build in a mentoring component. While the programs are not completely synonymous with the Bonner Program in terms of mission and purpose, each has key overlaps. Moreover, through interviews and research, we were able to probe to find key principles and practices for effectiveness in areas like selection, expectations, and structure. The following information introduces the research comprised from studying successful and existing mentoring programs, interviews with staff of these organizations, and from surveying current Bonner students and alumni. Western Governor’s University (WGU) Western Governor’s University (WGU), is an accredited, online university that has been a pioneer in utilizing mentorship as a tool for meaningful and effective learning. WGU’s primary student population consists of working adults pursuing an affordable, online degree in one of four areas: education, information technology, business, and health. The mentorship model at

this online institution was initiated in order to give their students the same level of attention and support as a traditional university. The mentorship model begins once a student enrolls in the college. They are personally and manually matched to a Student Mentor and a Course Mentor by a WGU staff member. The pairing is based on the degree being pursued and the time zones of the mentor and student. The Student Mentor has regular calls once a week with their student and aids in customizing the student’s degree plan. Additionally, the student mentor remains constant throughout the student’s entire time at WGU and acts as a coach and cheerleader. The Course Mentor changes based on the classes the student is taking and is a resource for conference calls, discussion, and conversations regarding the mentee’s classes. The Student Mentor is mandatory, but the Course Mentor is optional. All of the mentors, both Student and Course, are faculty members dedicated to that task. In an interview with WGU’s Vice President for Academic Advancement, Dr. Sally M. Johnston, we were able to uncover various useful information that could be incorporated into the Bonner program. WGU has a very strong support system for the mentors. All mentors go on a retreat in which they are oriented and trained on various methods to help students. During this training all mentors are given very clear set of expectations. Mentors are very gracious in having this training and provided with resources for meeting content and curriculum. New mentors shadow a veteran mentor and listen in on phone call meetings in which they can learn from. All mentors are placed into teams to serve as a support system. In this group they will meet and discuss any issues and or advice on how to overcome challenges. Each mentor also has weekly check in calls from supervisors to discuss the progress of their relationship with their mentee. This strong support system has proven to be very effective in ensuring that mentors not feel alone and guided throughout. Dr. Johnston also shared what the procedure was when a mentor and mentee were having issues connecting. If the mentor and mentee pair is not a good match and lacking chemistry each WGU student or mentor can petition to be assigned a new partner. The petition is then reviewed by a WGU staff member and students are assigned a new mentor. This was very helpful as it allowed us to look at ways in which the Bonner mentoring program could act when there isn’t a good match between mentors and mentees. iMentor iMentor is a college guidance mentoring model that links high school youth with college educated professionals. The purpose of this program is to empower and support students from low­income communities to graduate from high school, pursue college, and achieve their ambitions. iMentor currently provides about 3,000 students with mentors and hopes to double that within the next two years. iMentor partners with local high schools (in New York and Chicago) enlisting all of their students to be paired with a mentor for 3­4 years. While in school mentee students meet (online at first) with iMentor Program Coordinators once a week to build a

relationship, go through trainings, and discuss the purpose and benefits. This time also includes emailing mentors on their progress, goal setting, preparing for college, and completing work assigned by mentors. iMentor designs monthly programs in which all mentors are invited to meet with their mentees in person. Once a mentor/mentee have had a promising 3 month relationship, they’re allowed to meet in person outside of the iMentor programmatic events. iMentor’s curriculum focuses on college access. There are two programs: the College Ready Program and College Transit Program. The College Ready Program works with youth from 9­12th grade getting them on track to graduate and prepare applications to colleges. The College Transit Program works with students from 11th grade through their first year in college focusing on the transition process to college and getting them connected to valuable campus resources. As successful of a program that iMentor is there is little that the Bonner Alumni Mentoring Program could adopt, given its high degree of structure. iMentor has staff that manage the relationships and communications between the mentors and mentees. They also have a platform database system in which all communication and pairing is done. While Bonner currently does not have the capacity to build a program to this level, we can take from it some lessons about structuring the relationship and communication between mentors and mentees. In our case, we would use written prompts and reflection questions to suggest strategies for relationship building and sharing. Berry College’s Mentoring Program Berry College has recently launched a Center for Integrity in Leadership Program which is run by providing a mentor to groups of 5 students. Although this is not a one on one mentor relationship as the Bonner Program hopes to be, there was a lot of useful information that could be beneficial. Berry College Provost Dr. Kathy Richardson who helps lead the program shared a lot of information about the program. Berry’s mentor program uses a book discussion to guide and lead the meetings with mentors. The books are about leadership and integrity. Last year’s book was titled “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek. Besides the book discussion, the mentors are provided with a variety of case studies on integrity and ethics to create dialogue on how students could adopt their own sense of values. Berry’s program allows students to develop their leadership with a successful professional who has encountered various challenges in dealing with integrity. The students are paired with mentors that have or currently had a successful career in the student’s field of interest. This allows students to be actively engaged in the relationship as it matches students according to their career interest. The program lasts a year long with juniors and seniors as participants. The juniors could elect to participate again their senior year, but it is not required of them. This program’s content and overall theme is what inspired the curriculum that is proposed later.

Bonner Student and Alumni Surveys Key Findings [July 21]

We designed and implemented two surveys with current Bonner students and alumni. Their intent was to test out the concept and gather information that might inform and shape the program’s design. Questions addressed such issues as interest level, potential benefits, time commitment, and levels of engagement. The surveys yielded great results. Students’ Feedback This section will highlight key findings from the student survey. The first point of interest is the student’s interest in participating in the program. Out of 47 students 93% showed interest varying from likely to extremely likely. This graph shows the exact likelihood each participant was interested with only 3 students selecting that they would not be interested. s Beyond selecting their interest in having a mentor, students also got to express their feelings on the program. Students mentioned the importance of that mentor being a Bonner. One student expressed that “I would like a Bonner Alumni to help me foster my civic engagement as I go further in life.” Another student mentioned that “Not all of my mentors have the same worldly concerns that I do.” The student added on that “there is no such thing as too much Bonner love.” This feedback was very pleasing to receive.

The survey asked students what they would hope to gain from having a mentor. This graph charts their responses. The most popular with over 80% interest were: to broaden their network, get advice, and career guidance. This is important as we can create program content that is geared towards these topics.

The most shocking finding was when the student were asked if they currently had a mentor. 60% of students selected that they do not have a mentor in their life. As disconcerting as this was, it

recognized how much an alumni mentoring program was needed. This program could further enhance student’s Bonner experience and only strengthen the network. Alumni’s Feedback Of 51 alumni who answered the question in how likely they were to participate in the mentoring program 97% of them said they would be interested. over half of them selected that they would be “Extremely Interested.” This is really good news as the alumni that sign up to be a part of this program would be on a volunteer basis.

More than half of the alumni expressed they would be “Very Likely” to serve as an Occasional Mentor and Regular Mentor (These are later defined in terms of expectations of the relationship roles). The survey also asked alumni to select which of the following categories of help that they could provide for students. Astonishingly, more than half of them selected that

they would be willing to help with all categories. Although majority of the alumni showed high interest in serving as mentors we recognize that there are also limitations as to what we would require for mentors. Therefore, we provided a section in the survey for them to share what would not be feasible to ask of them. This feedback was very useful as we develop the expectations of the mentors. Below is a list of the their biggest concerns with being in the program:

Time concerns in terms of how much of a commitment the participation will be Having to travel long distances in order to meet with mentees Having to meet in person could be an issue with their busy schedules

Having to contribute financially Having to mentor more than 2 students

Recommendation

Given our research, a proposed model for the Bonner Alumni Mentoring Program is a tiered system where participants may choose the mentor­mentee relationship that is right for them. In this model, there are three different levels of relationships with flexible guidelines: Occasional Mentorship: This tier is ideal for students who want an introductory, connecting mentor and for mentors who want to be a part of the program but may not have the time to commit to it. Students engage in a short­term relationship with minimal contact where mentors could provide quick advice on resume tips, career advice, graduate school guidance, networking, job searches, etc. This could meet students interest in expanding their networks and getting career help without involving an ongoing relationship. Regular Mentorship: This tier is ideal for students who want a coaching mentor and for alumni who could serve commit a moderate amount of time. It is a moderate­level relationship where students are engaged with a mentor in monthly virtual meetings. Students would engage with Mentors once a month via phone/Skype. This relationship would be ideal to last a year long with the option to continue throughout the remainder of their time in college. Mentors answer questions, provide advice, and increase professional development. This level would consist of a structured form of communication but not as much of a time commitment. Committed Mentorship: This tier is the highest level of the mentor­mentee relationship. Most likely it would be the ideal end point for the program in which participants will begin at the Regular Mentorship and evolve into this one. They will have established a rich and deep relationship. There will be more structured programmatic meetings, but more personal as each pair establishes their curriculum. Students are looking for a high­level, long­term relationship with a mentor that is invested in their future and is willing to engage in personal weekly meetings. Development of the Program This model dictates general guidelines for each tier, which allows for mentors and mentees to engage in a relationship with someone with the same expectations. This is the first step of a mutual and effective relationship. The guidelines are also meant to be extremely flexible and have the capacity to be tailored for each pair of individuals. A pair can also decide to move from tier to tier as their relationship deepens, and they decide to commit more time to the

mentor­mentee relationship. It also allows either the mentor or mentee to opt out or exit from the relationship (or move down to just an occasional connection). This relates back to the “Law of Two Feet” from Open Space Technology. In order for this three­tiered system to work, we propose working off social media platforms, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, where mentors and mentees can 1) register as a mentor or mentee, 2) provide information that can serves as a way to link mentors and mentees, and 3) post requests, articles, videos, or other interesting media. By having a forum for individuals to register and regularly check in, an environment is created in which all participating members share the commonality of interest in a mentor­mentee relationship. Therefore, there is the first level of organic matching between mentor and mentee; they are both interested. The second level of organic matching between mentor and mentee comes in the participant's’ ability to maintain connection and communication. Based on what an individual decides to make public, mentors or mentees can actively seek out others that they are interested in. It incorporates initiative from at least one party to make the first introduction and begin the relationship (at any tier they wish.) That leads to the third level of organic pairing: initiative. If an individual finds their expectations in a mentor or mentee, they have to choose to contact them and act on their interest, just like an in­person beginning to a mentor­mentee relationship. They have to search up the individual on the platform and make an introduction. Once the introduction is made, the two individuals can enter a trial period, which we recommend to be about three months. This period is about deciding the level of relationship desired by both parties, testing to see what methods of communication are effective, and if there is potential for a deeper mentor­mentee relationship. This way, both the mentor and mentee have the option to dictate their own boundaries, but also the freedom to end the partnership at the end of the trial, no questions asked. No relationship will be forced, and there is also flexibility to create the partnership both the mentor and mentee desire. As a review, working off of a social media platform gives rise to three different levels of organic pairing between mentor and mentee:

1. They are both interested, because they are both already on the platform. 2. They have the ability to share more about their interests and personality by posting on the

forum, leading to natural connections between mentor and mentee. 3. It requires initiative for one party to contact the other.

We believe organic pairing is a necessary component to a mentoring model because our research shows that most mentor­mentee relationships occur in a natural manner. We would like to incorporate that aspect into the model as much as possible.

In terms of participants in the Bonner Alumni Mentoring Program, we envision including primarily students, alumni, Bonner coordinators, and Bonner directors for the initial launching of this network. We hope that it can grow to eventually include national partners, community partners, and Bonner affiliates. In regards to safety and liability, the Occasional Mentor and Regular Mentor levels of the three­tiered model do not necessarily have safety issues because most of the contact occurs virtually. However, if a mentor and mentee decide to engage in a Committed Mentor tier, a screening process will be required for both parties to ensure safety. For the second and third levels, the Foundation or a Mentoring Program working group would also provide training and support to mentors (to be described below).

Program Design Orientation to Leadership The program should include a focus on leadership and how students can continue a lifetime of civic engagement and leadership after graduation: Once a Bonner always a Bonner. Ideally the program could occur over three phases. The first phase would consist of getting to know each other, and discussing the importance/benefits of having a mentor. The mentee would introduce their roles in Bonner and career interests while the mentor discusses his/her line of work. The second phase would comprise of goal setting and deeper engagement in ensuring that the student is prepared for graduating from college and making plans for afterwards. The third phase would then talk more about leadership and civic involvement and how it is practiced in real life. It would allow the mentor to speak about his/her experiences. Rules to Adopt Below are the rules from Open Space Technology of which will influence the basic guidelines of each participant. We believe that these guidelines can support the success of the program and also drive its leadership and management into the network itself.

Whoever comes is the right people ...reminds participants that they don't need the Foundation staff and 100 people to get something done, you need people who care. And, absent the direction or control exerted in a traditional meeting, that's who shows up in the various breakout sessions of an Open Space meeting.

Whenever it starts is the right time ...reminds participants that "spirit and creativity do not run on the clock."

Wherever it is, is the right place ...reminds participants that space is opening everywhere all the time. Please be conscious and aware.

Whatever happens is the only thing that could have, be prepared to be surprised! ...reminds participants that once something has happened, it's done—and no amount of

fretting, complaining or otherwise rehashing can change that. Move on. The second part reminds us that it is all good.

When it's over, it's over ...reminds participants that we never know how long it will take to resolve an issue, once raised, but that whenever the issue or work or conversation is finished, move on to the next thing.

Law of two feet...If at any time during our time together you find yourself in any situation where you are neither learning nor contributing, use your two feet, go someplace else.

After seeing these rules from Open Space we have created our adaptation to be utilized for the Mentoring Program:

All participants will attempt to fully engage in the program Participants will keep an open mind and realize that this is a mutual relationship in which

both parties are learning and benefiting. Both participants agree to be clear, transparent, and understanding in sharing how much

time they can commit to the activities involved, how often they communicate, and any particular preferences or expectations about that relationship.

If at any time during your time together you find you are no longer learning or contributing to the relationship, you will speak up about it.This program will be a safe space where both parties are comfortable to speak about what is on their mind.

These initial guidelines will mostly be adapted to the pairs that are a part of the Regular Mentorship. The Occasional Mentorship will not have as strict expectations as the relationship is impromptu. Launch Recommendation For the first launch of the program it would be best to only go with the occasional and regular mentor model. The occasional mentor would simply just be creating a profile and accessing a Bonner Alumni Resource group either on Facebook, LinkedIn or online. Through this resource network students could simply look up the alumni based on career interest, jobs, schools and more for simple questions. This would not tie either party to a continuous relationship unless they choose otherwise. This arrangement appears ideal as it would utilize the alumni who want to help but may not be able to promise to a partnership with students. The Regular Mentorship will be a structured model in which mentors will be paired with students. We recommend that Bonners qualify and enroll while in their second year in the program. This ensures that Bonners have had the chance to adapt to their Bonner duties and could more easily commit to contributing to the mentor program. Same rule would be recommended for alumni to participate as mentors. Alumni that are in their second year since graduating would be better adjusted to post grad life and be more of a resource for students. The next section reveals a method of how one could enroll and be matched.

Matching Once students or alumni are ready to enroll in the program they will use the designated platform to fill out the following information: Name Email Demographics (gender, ethnicity) Major School Class Year Academic interests Service Site (If a student) Career/Job (If an alum) Brief Intro Statement about participants goals and intentions for the program This information will be used for both the Occasional Mentorship and the Regular Mentorship. For the Occasional Mentorship this information could be used by students to locate alumni for help on anything they may need. The intro statement will kind of work as a bio section for the participant. This information will also be used for making the matches for those participating in the Regular Mentorship. There is still further research to be done explained in the “Future Actions” section which explains what that process could look like.

Future Actions We suggest the following next steps that need to be established in order for the launch of the program. Bonner Alumni Mentoring Program Working Team There needs to be a team established on who will continue the work of this project. We suggest possibly utilizing the Bonner Fellows to commit in helping out. Ari and Eliza could be the leads of the program from the foundation. Fully Develop Expectations and Prompts First order of business would be to completely flush out the expectations of the program. This entails the time commitment that each person is required to participate, the length of the program, what each party is required to contribute to the partnership, and what support the mentors will receive from the program. This will consist of completely designing the curriculum

for the meetings, at least one year’s worth of material. Some examples of potential content for the meetings could be:

Basic introductory activities so participants could get to know each other Resume Building/Workshop Leadership Compass/Strengths Finder Incorporate Bonner Curriculum into the meetings Grad School Exploration How to be a good servant leader SLI’s “Inside Out” and “Outside In” workshops would be great to incorporate as well

Also, further research will need to be done on how exactly to create the matching process. Will we create a survey, or is there an inexpensive program that Bonner could utilize. With the new design of the Bonner Wiki and maybe BWBRS, could there be an area where we could incorporate this into it. Could we spread this matching work with Bonner staff throughout the network? A student leader at participating school could have a part time role working directly on this project. This student could serve as the Bonner Alumni Mentoring Program Coordinator, maybe a possible senior intern role. Training and Support for Mentors Through the interviews that we conducted with various mentoring program we found that this portion was very important to ensure the success of the program. It is vital that mentors have a sense of support and security in the work that they will be doing. There needs to be a Training/Orientation in which mentors are provided with a clear understanding of their expectations and duties. This training could be executed via a webinar, as many alumni expressed in the survey that traveling for meetings was not ideal for everyone. I feel that we can adopt WGU’s support system of grouping mentors in teams. This will be helpful as mentors can provide help to each other without leaving too much work from those overseeing the mentoring program. Mentor Recruitment Strategies The most challenging piece of this program is recruiting alumni to serve as mentors. Further research must be done on effective ways to attract mentors. The long­term hope for this program is to be active throughout the whole Bonner Network at all 65+ Bonner schools. This will require thousands of mentors to participate.