Jean Rhodes – Page 3 – The Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring

About Jean Rhodes

Dr. Rhodes is the Frank L. Boyden Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She has devoted her career to understanding and advancing the role of intergenerational relationships in the intellectual, social, educational, and career development of youth. She has published three books, four edited volumes, and over 100 chapters and peer-reviewed articles on topics related to positive youth development, the transition to adulthood, and mentoring. Dr. Rhodes is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research and Community Action, and was a Distinguished Fellow of the William T. Grant Foundation. She has been awarded many campus-wide teaching awards for her advances in pedagogy and scholarship, including the Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Scholar Award, the Student Government Outstanding Teacher Award, and the Chancellor’s Outstanding Scholar award at UMB.

Entries by Jean Rhodes

How Real Conversations Can Change LIves

May 4, 2026/in Editors Blog/by Jean Rhodes

By Jean Rhodes A new study Lauren Schudde, published in The Review of Higher Education, used nationally representative longitudinal data and propensity score models to examine the effects of early engagement at community colleges. Speaking with faculty about academic matters outside of class increased the probability that students would return for a second year by […]

Beyond the Chatbot: How AI Can Upskill Mentors and Deepen Human Connection

April 26, 2026/in MentorPRO AI/by Jean Rhodes

By Jean Rhodes A new Hamilton Project paper by Daron Acemoglu, David Autor, and Simon Johnson, Building Pro-Worker Artificial Intelligence, makes an argument that has direct implications for the field of mentoring. The authors distinguish between technologies that commodify human expertise and technologies that expand it. The first kind automates what workers know and shrinks […]

When Students (Not Chatbots) Help Students, Everyone Flourishes

April 23, 2026/in MentorPRO AI/by Jean Rhodes

By Jean Rhodes In 2020, Tyler VanderWeele and his team at Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program tracked nearly 13,000 adults to explore the longitudinal effects of altruism. Their findings, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, were striking. People who volunteered at least two hours a week reported significantly higher levels of happiness and life […]

Sam vs. a Caring Peer: What a Simple Study Reveals About the Limits of Chatbots

April 8, 2026/in MentorPRO AI/by Jean Rhodes

By Jean Rhodes In a new study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Ruo-Ning Li and colleagues recruited 296 first-year college students and randomly assigned them to one of three conditions over two weeks: daily text exchanges with a chatbot called Sam, daily text exchanges with a randomly assigned fellow first-year student, or […]

The Flipside of Microaggressions: How Micro-Recognitions Change Everything in Mentoring

March 26, 2026/in Editors Blog/by Jean Rhodes

By Jean Rhodes When Professor Becky Wai-Ling Packard joined the Center today for a webinar, we knew we were in for something good. What we did not anticipate was the sheer volume of interest. Over 500 attendees, nearly 70 comments and questions flooding the chat, and a palpable sense that she had touched something many […]

The Gift Goes Both Ways: What a New Meta-Analysis Reveals About Purpose, Meaning, and Older Adult Mentors

March 24, 2026/in Editors Blog/by Jean Rhodes

By Jean Rhodes The mentoring field has long understood the value of volunteer programs primarily through the lens of what young people receive. That framing is not wrong, but a new meta-analysis preprint by Boreham, O’Gorman, and Bailey (2026) offers a compelling complement to it. The study suggests that mentoring may be one of the […]

No One Should Leave Empty-Handed: Single-Session Approaches for Youth on Waitlists

March 12, 2026/in Editors Blog/by Jean Rhodes

By Jean Rhodes When a young person and their family reach out to a mentoring program, they are at a peak moment of motivation and readiness. Something has prompted them to ask for help. It might be a struggle at school, a difficult transition, or a parent’s growing worry. Whatever the reason, that window of […]

Undergraduate career mentoring: Social mobility panacea or ethical dilemma?

March 12, 2026/in Culture and Context, Mentoring Practice/by Jean Rhodes

Lyden, T. (2026). Undergraduate career mentoring: Social mobility panacea or ethical dilemma? International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-12-2024-0135 By Jean Rhodes Most people working in higher education mentoring operate from a simple premise. Connecting undergraduates with employers and professionals helps them navigate a labor market and build social capital. It is hard […]

New study highlights the need to consider mentees’ risks and protective factors

March 11, 2026/in Culture and Context, Mentoring Practice/by Jean Rhodes

By Jean Rhodes For decades, the mentoring field has operated with a fairly consistent , and arguably incomplete, logic. Programs need to work with youth who most at risk, assign them a mentor, and let the relationship to do its work. A new study by Margaret Meldrum and Michael D. Lyons (2026), published in Prevention […]

Important New Evaluation Highlights the Promise (and Limits) of CBT-Informed Mentoring

February 23, 2026/in Editors Blog/by Jean Rhodes

By Jean Rhodes A new randomized controlled trial of the YMCA’s Reach and Rise program, led by Roger Jarjoura and colleagues and published in the American Journal of Community Psychology, deserves close attention (Jarjoura et al., 2026). It offers rare experimental evidence that a volunteer mentoring program grounded in cognitive behavioral principles can reduce externalizing […]

About Jean Rhodes

Entries by Jean Rhodes

How Real Conversations Can Change LIves

Beyond the Chatbot: How AI Can Upskill Mentors and Deepen Human Connection

When Students (Not Chatbots) Help Students, Everyone Flourishes

Sam vs. a Caring Peer: What a Simple Study Reveals About the Limits of Chatbots

The Flipside of Microaggressions: How Micro-Recognitions Change Everything in Mentoring

The Gift Goes Both Ways: What a New Meta-Analysis Reveals About Purpose, Meaning, and Older Adult Mentors

No One Should Leave Empty-Handed: Single-Session Approaches for Youth on Waitlists

Undergraduate career mentoring: Social mobility panacea or ethical dilemma?

New study highlights the need to consider mentees’ risks and protective factors

Important New Evaluation Highlights the Promise (and Limits) of CBT-Informed Mentoring

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About Jean Rhodes

Entries by Jean Rhodes

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