Entries by Jean Rhodes

Teaching to fish: New study highlights the value of building students’ social capital

By Jean Rhodes A growing number of innovative mentoring programs have emerged in recent years that involve both “teaching youth to fish” for mentors (i.e., to recruit natural mentors) and “stocking the pond” (i.e., expanding the availability of high-social capital adults in marginalized youth’s lives). For years, the National Guard Youth Challenge Program, an intensive […]

A Nobel Prize Winner’s Life of Mentoring

Photo courtesy of The University of Texas at Austin Editor’s note: It is my honor to share Dr. Mary Rowe’s new essay about Nobel Laureate, John Goodenough. Dr. Rowe is an Adjunct Professor of Negotiation and Conflict Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She served for almost 42 years as an organizational ombuds […]

Overcoming Cognitive Biases to Improve Youth Mentoring

by Jean Rhodes A range of cognitive biases have shaped our expectations and practices in formal mentoring programs and hindered progress in the field. Key Points: Conflation of Expectations: Informal and formal mentoring relationships are often conflated, leading to unrealistic expectations. Admittedly, for many years I support for this conflation based on attachment theory and […]

Two research-based strategies for building strong connections

Jean Rhodes Building strong, enduring mentoring relationships depends on many factors, including empathy, proximity, and shared interest.  But here are two  research-based tips that might be helpful to mentors. Reciprocal self-disclosure A new study from the University of Michigan highlights the value of reciprocal self-disclosure in building connections with others. The researchers conducted several studies, […]

How to “Do” Critical Mentoring: Making your Program More Culturally Relevant

by Torie Weiston, Ph.D. Weighty events taking place all over our nation have prompted the mentoring world to begin looking closely at how to make our work more relevant for communities of color. Many are looking for ways to address gaps in mentoring practice. Many realize that existing practice often lacks the critical foundation required […]

Motivational interviewing: What is it and how can it improve mentoring?

By Jean Rhodes In a recent review, Hart, McQuillin, et al. (2023) explored how teaching motivational interviewing to school-based paraprofessionals can help bridge gaps in mental health services. This has direct relevance for mentoring programs and is becoming an increasingly popular strategy. But what exactly is motivational interviewing? What is motivational interviewing? We all know […]

Should mentors be compensated? Two experts weigh in

Professor Timothy Cavell is the  Director of the Center for Research on Aggression and Victimization (CRAV). Primarily, CRAV’s researchers are interested in the development of effective interventions for school age children that may be on their way to having problems as they grow. Sometimes it makes sense to compensate mentors Do you think that mentors […]

New study explores White mentors’ beliefs about racial/ethnic discrimination

Editor’s note: Connecting with one child through a mentoring program can illuminate the pernicious effects of racial/ethnic discrimination, potentially mobilizing more sustained authentic action. Mentors’ negative stereotypes of disenfranchised groups are challenged by the many sources of strength in minority families neighborhoods. In other words, through proximity, mentoring helps challenge dominant narratives and make us, […]

Peer mentoring programs have enormous potential….but there’s a catch

By Jean Rhodes In a recent meta-analysis, my colleagues and I found that the effect size for cross‐age peer mentoring was more than double that observed in previous meta‐analyses of intergenerational mentoring. We concluded that “cross‐age peer mentoring can offer feasible and efficient opportunities to have older peers mentor youth with the potential for mutual […]