Posts

Profiles in Mentoring: A Conversation with Johanna Greeson on Natural Mentoring and Foster Care

Below is a profile of Professor Johanna Greeson. Johanna’s excellent new book will be out next month!  by Kate Powers Introduction: Johanna Greeson is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Greeson received her MSW from Bryn Mawr College in 1999, and then returned to […]

Research applies sociological concepts to mentoring programs

Stanton-Salazar, R. (2016). Contributions of social capital theory and social network models in advancing the connection between students’ school-based learning and community-based opportunities for pursuing interest-driven learning. Paper presented at Power Brokers: Building Youth Social Capital through Connected Learning. University of California, Irvine.   Summarized by Justin Preston In a paper presented in the Fall […]

When College students mentor high-risk youth: Two important lessons

summarized by Stella Kanchewa Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 69-78. Introduction: Credit bearing service-learning experiences for college students can mutually engender growth among students who participate within these courses and the communities they serve. Students’ experiences within these courses encourage increasing awareness of social inequities (e.g., systemic oppression, marginalization and privilege), particularly biases and […]

Research identifies key program features to support success for youth with disabilities

Lindsay, S., Hartman, L. R., & Fellin, M. (2016). A systematic review of mentorship programs to facilitate transition to post-secondary education and employment for youth and young adults with disabilities. Disability & Rehabilitation, 38(14), 1329-1340. Summarized by Jessica Cunningham Background: Youth with disabilities encounter barriers when attempting to gain access to higher education and the […]

Creating a Culturally Relevant Mentoring Program for Girls of Color

By Bernadette Sanchez, Ph.D. Not too long ago, my colleagues and I created a mentoring program, called GirlPOWER!, for African American and Latina early adolescent girls. Our goal was to ensure that the program was gender specific as well as culturally and developmentally appropriate. We created the program in collaboration with Big Brothers Big Sisters […]

Moving toward critical mentoring: Social justice trainings as a starting place

By Amy J. Anderson Over the past few years, I have been involved with Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), a multiracial coalition of individuals who support social movements led by people of color. As a white woman, I wanted to not only learn more about my own role in racial justice, but also engage […]

New research investigates the challenges and successes of Y-A Partnerships

Heffernan, O. S., Herzog, T. M., Schiralli, J. E., Hawke, L. D., Chaim, G., & Henderson, J. L. (2017). Implementation of a youth-adult partnership model in youth mental health systems research: Challenges and successes. Health Expectations, 20, 1183-1188. doi:10.1111/hex.12554 Summarized by Renée Klein Schaarsberg Notes of Interest: This article describes the implementation of the McCain […]

New program combines coding and mentoring to help at-risk youth

Written by Jessica Guynn and Megan Diskin, USA TODAY CAMARILLO and SAN QUENTIN, Calif. — Inside an aging brick facility ringed by a chain-link fence and agricultural fields, 14 young people convicted of violent crimes are trying to program a better future for themselves. For the last two months they’ve been learning to write code through a first-of-its-kind pilot program at the Ventura […]

Leaving So Soon? Researchers Investigate Why Mentoring Matches End Early

Mentoring relationship closures in Big Brothers Big Sisters community mentoring programs: Patterns and associated risk factors. DeWit, D., DuBois, D., Erdem, G., Larose, S., Lipman, E., & Spencer, R. (2016). American Journal of Community Psychology, 0, 1-13. DOI: 10.1002/ajcp.12023. Summarized by Justin Preston   Introduction While previous research has demonstrated the overall positive benefits associated with […]

A conversation with Whitney Mastin: YIM at the programmatic level

Youth Initiated Mentoring, part 2: Promise and challenges in implementing YIM at the programmatic level By Justin Preston Welcome to the second of the Chronicle’s two-part series on Youth Initiated Mentoring (YIM). In part one, we spoke with Professor Sarah Schwartz, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Suffolk University, about the Connected Scholars program. The Connected […]