Expert Corner

How Mentoring Can Shift from “Beating the Odds” to Changing the Odds

By Jean Rhodes In an important new Annual Review of Clinical Psychology article, UVA Professor Noelle Hurd, describes how mentors can help ethnically marginalized youth can derive positive developmental outcomes while also working with their mentees to create a more just and equitable society. As Hurd notes, much of the theorizing and research on natural […]

Youth civic engagement can help uphold democracy…and mentors can help.

By Elan C. Hope (Brennan Center post) Civic engagement is a key indicator of adulthood. Young adults respond to the social and political issues of the day in a variety of ways. After the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020, young people demonstrated against racial injustice in more than 10,000 peaceful […]

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 […]

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 […]

Commentary on CDC Report Finds Alarming Levels of Mental Health Symptoms in High School Students

By Alexandra Werntz, Ph.D. On February 13, 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  results of a survey conducted with American high school students in the fall of 2021. According to the data, the kids are not alright.   More specifically, the report highlights three major takeaways:  “New CDC report raises urgency to invest in […]

Rooted in Relationships Podcast series with guest Jean Rhodes: Mentorship is a rich opportunity for positive development from youth to adulthood

Episode 2.6 – Jean Rhodes – Mentorship is a rich opportunity for positive development from youth to adulthood The mentor-mentee relationship can be particularly rich for both individuals. Mentors can connect mentees with opportunities and guide them through important educational, professional and personal stages in their lives. In this episode of Rooted in Relationships, former […]

How Mentors Support Young Adults as They Gain Awareness of Societal Inequality and Engage in Social Action

Authors: Lidia Y. Monjaras-Gaytan & Bernadette Sánchez Young people have been at the forefront of many sociopolitical issues — whether they are protesting, getting involved with community organizing, sharing their views on social issues on social media, or simply challenging their friends’ racist opinions. They are demonstrating that at a young age, they are becoming […]

Winner takes all?: Mentoring programs in the age of inequality

By Jean Rhodes In his recent best-selling book, Winner Takes All, writer Anand Giridharadas sheds light on the complexities and potentially self-serving nature of focusing on individual solutions and one-off opportunities in an unjust world. Through this lens, private solutions, including youth programs that promote skills, can be seen as a counteroffer to essentially public […]

Building Relationships with Diverse Learners

Meet Laura Tollis, an 8th-grade teacher who co-teaches math, social studies, language arts and whose primary focus is supporting students with special needs. She describes how she builds relationships with all the students in her class, and offers tips to connect better with those who have diverse needs and invisible disabilities: When I set out […]

On Methods: What’s a meta-analysis, anyways?

  by Adar Ben-Eliyahu, Assistant Professor, University of Haifa There is often considerable fanfare when a new meta-analysis is published. What’s the excitement about anyways? Don’t most meta-analyses seem to be saying things we already know from previous research? This is somewhat true, as meta-analyses summarize previous research findings. However, in contrast to a review, […]