Faculty and staff invited to participate in new mentoring program

Together with an advisory board made up of five current first-generation students, the Office of Student Affairs is developing a new mentoring program aimed at first-generation college students.

A key component of this mentoring program is for Salve Regina’s new students to be paired with current faculty/staff members who were also first-generation college students. The purpose of this program is to ensure these students are connected and supported at the institution.

Research indicates that first-generation students can have more difficulty acclimating to college. Intervention efforts that reach out to these students during college can help alleviate the differences between first-generation and non-first-generation students. This will help the University reach its retention goals and ties in with the University’s new strategic imperatives of “developing a ‘state of the art’ student success model” and “creating a culture wherein faculty and staff work together promoting student success.”

For the purpose of this program, the definition of a first-generation college student is one whose parents have not obtained a baccalaureate degree. Faculty/staff members who identify themselves as a first-generation college graduate are invited to participate in this new program. To learn more, contact Jennifer Jensen, assistant dean of students, at (401) 341-2209 or jensenj@salve.edu.

The goal for implementation is fall 2013 for the class of 2017.