Posts

Empathic teacher-student connections lead to better student behavior

By Emily Underwood, ScienceMag School suspension rates have nearly tripled in the United States since the 1970s, rising from just 3.7% of all students in 1974 to nearly 11% in 2011. That’s a big deal because missed class means missed learning, and suspensions can predict future unemployment and even incarceration. Now, a new study suggests […]

“It was kind of like me sitting on a rainbow”: Reaching out to youth on the autism spectrum

By Jean Rhodes It was a simple act of kindness, caught in a photo. Travis Rudolph, a Florida State University star wide receiver, was visiting a nearby middle school last week with his teammates when he spotted a 6th grade boy sitting by himself in the cafeteria. “So I asked him, could I sit down and have lunch with […]

A conversation with Dr. Belle Liang: The intersection of positive female youth development and mentoring

Written by Sam Burton Dr. Belle Liang is an Associate Professor in the Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology Department at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education. Dr. Liang is a member of the Research and Policy Council of MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership and Advisory Board of the National Cadre of Mentoring Researchers. As a national expert […]

Brief Mentoring, Big Effects: Evaluation of a Short-Term, School-Based Mentoring Intervention

McQuillin, S., Strait, G., Bradley, S., & Ingram A. (2015). Brief instrumental school-based mentoring for first- and second- year middle school students: A randomized evaluation. Journal of Community Psychology, 43(7), 885-899. Summarized by Jessica Cunningham   Introduction School-based mentoring programs are one of the fastest growing types of mentoring programs across the United States, but […]

Mentors Serve as “Facilitators of Change” for Ex-Offenders

Garcia, J. (2015). The Importance of the Mentor–Mentee Relationship in Women’s Desistance From Destructive Behaviors. International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology, 0306624X14568257. Summary by Justin Preston     INTRODUCTION Desistance, the ongoing process of change in which individuals reduce their involvement in destructive acts, is not a matter of sudden, all-or-nothing transformation that […]

New Research Identifies Relationship Quality as Key to Successful School-Based Mentoring

Bayer, A., Grossman, J., & DuBois, D. L. (2015). Using volunteer mentors to improve the academic outcomes of underserved students: The role of relationships. Journal of Community Psychology. Summarized by Jessica Cunningham, B.A., Research Associate, Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring Background: Many schools facing financial hardship are turning to low-cost ways of identifying and supporting students […]

Why Public Schools Should Reinvent Mentorship

by Daniel Lombrosco (WATCH VIDEO) Jessica Valoris is a “dream director,” a new take on the guidance counselor role that combines mentorship, life coaching, and artistic training. Jessica’s job is difficult: Only 22 percent of students at Roosevelt High School are at grade level and many are on the verge of dropping out. “I’m creating […]

The Importance of High-School Mentors

by Alyza Sebenius (the Atlantic) In her job as a “dream director,” Jessica Valoris is tasked with unleashing the potential of disadvantaged students at an inner-city high school in Washington, D.C. Her employer, a New York-based nonprofit called The Future Project, embeds mentors like Valoris in public schools, characterizing her role as a “midwife of […]

At UC San Diego, retired professors are mentoring first-generation college students

By Melvin H Green, The Conversation Thursday, January 7, 2016 My mother cried when I told her I was changing my major from engineering to chemistry. Her fear was that I would never earn a living as a chemist. When she heard a few years later that I planned to go for a PhD in […]