Mentoring at Minority-Serving Institutions

This chapter highlights mentorship strategies of a southeastern Historically Black College and University (HBCU) adult degree program. In serving the nontraditional student population of this Black university, the institutions have cultivated strategies used to mentor and motivate adult students to achieve successful outcomes. Some of these strategies are built around activities and organizations designed to include adult students while other measures can be contributed to the development of the family like atmosphere that the college provides nontraditional students on campus and virtually. These insights were gathered from the experiences of current and previous students of the program as well as faculty and administrators through informal interviews and observation. This work will first address the literature on mentoring adult learners, highlight the strategies that were used to develop the college's approach to adult mentorship, and share examples. The chapter will close with recommendations and insights on how our approach could be replicated at other minority-serving institutions (MSIs).