Why Higher Ed Should Have Mentorship Programs

Case 1: Building A Sense of Community and Belonging

Challenge:

University A is navigating through welcoming students back on campus after COVID shutdowns but are still keeping online classes an option to those who prefer it. Even without these recent challenges, this is still a daunting transition for new higher ed students. University A has many clubs and societies for students to join and connect with each other, but they don’t have a mentorship program to connect students with others in a 1:1 way for advice and support. There seems to be even more of a disconnect for transfer students, international students, and veterans who sometimes feel separated from the rest of the campus community.

University A also has a very strong engineering program but struggles with other higher ed institutions like MIT to recruit talented students. They need a way to differentiate themselves in order to attract more top performing students to apply.

A Student Voice survey of 2,003 undergrads (sophomores, juniors and seniors) from Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse, with support from Kaplan, found that…

Process:

Mentoring connects students to others within the campus community that they wouldn’t have met/talked to otherwise, and provides an easily accessible middle ground for them no matter if they live on or off campus, or learn remotely through online classes. TaskHuman creates a platform for students to effortlessly and instantly connect with their mentors when it works best for them. Mentors will use their unique experiences to help mentees develop new skills, build a network, set and achieve goals, and more. TaskHuman creates a community where students can find numerous internal mentors for different skills they want to build on, learn and achieve.

Outcome:

University A has found a way to seamlessly build a professional community among students with the help of TaskHuman. Both mentors and mentees benefit from this – mentees gain insight into higher ed culture and resources, while mentors are able to develop their own coaching skills and build on their networking opportunities. Students, Alumni, and faculty from all different types of diverse backgrounds are able to connect. This results in keeping them inspired and engaged by providing deeper support, creating a more successful student experience, and enabling participants to gain valuable leadership experience as mentors. Using a mentorship program becomes a differentiator while also creating connectivity to prospective students to current students and alumni.

Want to keep reading?