Invest Wisely: Mentoring and Transfer Success

1. Invest Wisely: Mentoring and Transfer Success Dr. Becky Wai-Ling Packard Mount Holyoke College bpackard@mtholyoke.edu Presentation at National Institute for Study of Transfer Students September 2011

2. Meet Elena

3. The Study

4. STEM Transfer in Massachusetts

5. Ecology of STEM Persistence First-generation college CommCollege Pathway School Home Meso: Internships Macro-System: Status of Community College, Low-income families Exo-System: Job Networks, Transportation, CC-4year Collaboration Work

6. Major Barriers…. • Finances • Advising • Alignment • Campus Climate Packard, B. W., Gagnon, J. L., LaBelle, O., Jeffers, K., & Lynn, E. (2011). Women’s experiences in the STEM community college transfer pathway. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 17(2), 129–147. Packard, B. W., Gagnon, J. L., & Senas, A. (In press). Avoiding unnecessary delays: Women and men navigating the community college transfer pathway in science, technical, engineering, and mathematics fields. Community College Journal of Research and Practice.

7. Finances • I had to defer this semester because I just can’t afford to go right now…I could have used a hand in figuring out how to get financial aid, as far as going from a community college to a four-year college is concerned…because that’s what I am hung up on right now.

8. Advising at Comm College… I didn’t have a real advisor for the first several years of school, so I took a lot of unneeded classes and wasted a few years and thousands of dollars…[Biology] is not possible for me anymore; it would take me way too long to finish.

9. Course Alignment • So I signed up for the second half of Organic Chem and nothing matched up. I felt really behind and I ended up withdrawing from that class.

10. Climate • [My science faculty advisor] looked me in the face and was like, ‘You’re from a community college, what are you doing here?’ He basically said that none of the classes that I had taken at the community college were any good, they weren’t going to count for anything, and I had to start over. He asked, “Can you even do this major in the time that you are here, are you sure you want to do this major?”

11. Major Barriers…. • Finances • Advising • Alignment • Campus Climate …Self-doubt, question feasibility and Massachusetts is not atypical Hurtado (2010, at NSF) Dowd (2010 with HSIs)

12. Facilitators of Persistence…. • Early, Effective Advising • Faculty Advisor at 4 year • Peer Study Groups • Transfer mentors Packard, B. W., Gagnon, J. L., LaBelle, O., Jeffers, K., & Lynn, E. (2011). Women’s experiences in the STEM community college transfer pathway. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 17(2), 129–147. Packard, B. W., Gagnon, J. L., & Senas, A. (In press). Avoiding unnecessary delays: Women and men navigating the community college transfer pathway in science, technical, engineering, and mathematics fields. Community College Journal of Research and Practice.

13. Recommendation: invest wisely

14. Mentoring • Mentoring is more than a person • Mentoring is more than a program

15. Mentoring • Mentoring is more than a person • Mentoring is more than a program Peer Transfer Mentor SI/Facilitated Study Group Faculty Advisor Supervisor at Relevant and Flexible Job

16. Mentoring Landscape Functions: Socio-Emotional Instrumental

17. Mentoring Typology

18. High Impact: Peer Mentoring √ Same-stage cohorts • Scholar cohorts • Residential or section enrollment at four-year for incoming and recent transfers • Research-based for newer or upper-level students √ Near-Peer mentoring • Peer-led teaching and study groups in gateway courses • Co-transfer support; orientation/mentoring program √ Step-Ahead collaborative projects and classes • Link 2- and 4-year students in pathway

19. The Power of the Cohort: Science Posse • Cohort-building and Leadership Model • Summer boot camp • On-Going Mentoring Photo by Jorge Meyer for Howard Hughes Medical Institute

20. Near-Peer and Step-Ahead Mentors: Pathways Program • Mount Holyoke & Holyoke Community College • Proactive transfer liaison for selective colleges • Vibrant Transfer Office • Critical mass of transfer students • Near-peer mentoring upon arrival • Co-taught course, drawn from both campuses • Forthcoming Additions… • Science Transfer Seminar; Internships • Boosted Advising with Advocacy for Registration • STEM Peer mentors

21. Best Practices: “Doses” of Entitlement • Plant the seed • Invite participation • Grow competencies • Model how to seek support • Normalize resources • Make hidden rules explicit • Embed study groups in class • Reinforce belonging and being deserving of possibility How faculty boost persistence

22. Example I haven’t really learned about the process yet. [The professor] just pulled me aside and asked me what I was going to do later on. Like four other professors have done the same thing, which makes me wonder if all these professors are wondering what I’m going to do next…maybe I should do something.

23. Advising: Bad Example • [My science faculty advisor] looked me in the face and was like, ‘You’re from a community college, what are you doing here?’ He basically said that none of the classes that I had taken at the community college were any good, they weren’t going to count for anything, and I had to start over. He asked, “Can you even do this major in the time that you are here, are you sure you want to do this major?”

24. Advising: Good Example • [My science faculty advisor] looked me in the face and said, “You’re from a community college. I’m so happy you are here.” Then he looked at what I had taken and realized a class I needed was full. He said, “Let me call my colleague teaching that class. I’m here to help you make this transition as smooth as possible. ”

25. College and Program Levels Examples • Financial Aid • Registrar • Learning Resources • Advising • Peer Mentoring and Co-Transfer programs • Transfer Affairs • Collaboration of STEM Faculty Across Colleges • Joint funding, research • structural, informational, relational, cultural • structural, informational, relational, cultural Transfer Agents and Champions; Transfer Culture from Dowd (2011) and Stanton-Salazar (2010)

26. Exemplary Collaborations • S-STEP Program (collab research/classes) • Massasoit-Stonehill College • Funded by NSF-STEP/S-STEM Grants • C-STEP Program (cohort, advising) • UNC-Chapel Hill and Alamance CC • Funded by Jack Kent Cooke • CAITE and Georgia Computes! • Statewide Collaborations, SI funded by NSF

27. Recommendation: invest wisely,many returns

28. Mentoring • Mentoring is more than a person • Mentoring is more than a program

29. Mentoring • Mentoring is multiple in source and function • Mentoring is strategic infrastructure • Mentoring is an orientation, an attitude, a culture • Mentoring is shared across institutions, across the state, and nation

30. Ecology of STEM Persistence First-generation college CommCollege Pathway School Home Meso: Internships Macro-System: Status of Community College, Low-income families Exo-System: Job Networks, Transportation, CC-4year Collaboration Work

31. Acknowledgements Holyoke Community College Springfield Technical Community College Greenfield Community College Quinsigamond Community College Roxbury Community College; Bunker Hill Community College CONNECT consortium of SE Massachusetts Massasoit/Stonehill College collaboration CAITE and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst ENGAGE in Engineering Jack Kent Cooke Pathways Program; FP program Bowdoin, Smith, and Williams Colleges Brandeis Posse Program; C-STEP Program My research team at Mount Holyoke College For more info: bpackard@mtholyoke.eduwww.mtholyoke.edu/~bpackard