Bringing Theory to Practice Category II Proposal
Title of Project: "Dartmouth Mentoring With Purpose"
November 2013
Primary contact: Helen Damon-Moore
Director of Service and Educational Programs
Tucker Foundation, Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 646-9610
Project Description:
Undergraduate students today appear to be disengaged from civic learning and from democracy (Bringing Theory to Practice, in Transforming Undergraduate Education: Theory That Compels and Practice That Succeeds, 2012.) But the Dartmouth Mentoring With Purpose project takes as its starting point the fact that mentoring younger people or peers is a popular and high-status form of civic engagement, attracting many and different kinds of undergraduates annually; for example, well over 600 of 4,000 undergraduates engage in this form of experiential learning at Dartmouth through the Tucker Foundation alone. The Mentoring With Purpose project will build on this interest to connect students, staff, and faculty from multiple existing mentoring programs and academic courses to systematically further the development of the whole student and of a campus mentoring ethos. Through instruction and sustained reflection, Dartmouth will enhance mentoring to foster a new "high impact practice" that helps students to flourish as mentors and as engaged citizen leaders. For, in the words of John Saltmarsh, "it is in such deliberately chosen and repeatedly enacted aspects of the self… [that students can] create a more just society." (John Saltmarsh in Caryn McTighe Musil, "Reconfiguring Civic Engagement on Campus: What Are the Levers for Change?" Diversity and Democracy 14, 3, p. 1.) As our model suggests, cultural practices and systems will be furthered, challenged, or changed as a result of students' work to examine their values and make them congruent with their practice.
Through an annual mentoring summit, dialogue groups, classroom discussions, and their own mentoring of others, students--with faculty, staff, community leaders--will learn more about themselves; about those whom they mentor; and about the possibilities and need for social change. (Anthony Appiah, "Sidling Up to Difference," August 2013"On Being" with Krista Tippett, NPR transcript.) They will address significant life questions while mentoring, helping them to flourish and to nurture others in flourishing as well. The aim of the program is to involve 200 students in the first mentoring summit and 100 students in early discussion groups with faculty and staff. We will then expand the project to include larger numbers of students and their mentees at Dartmouth andin the surrounding communities, with the eventual aim of constituting a national civic engagement model.
Flourishingstudents, according to initial conversations among Dartmouth community members, have a sense of direction and are mindful, knowledgeable about human behavior and relationships, resilient,and able to interact in healthy ways with others. (Conversations with Tucker Foundation student directors; conversation with Dartmouth On Purpose student planners; based on Laurie Schreiner, "'The Thriving Quotient': A New Vision for Student Success," About Campus May-June 2010, p. 6.) The summit and the dialogue groups will help to develop these attributes and skills, as well as those related to mentoring. Mentoring is defined at the project's outset as a "developmental partnership through which one person shares knowledge, skills, information and perspective to foster the personal growth of another." (Amanda Stone, University of South Carolina Mentoring Program, "Mentoring for Success," South Carolina State University.) Debating and refining this definition will be part of the work of the project.
Core Objectives:
- To help involved students better understand who they are, and who they might become.
- To improve mentoring at Dartmouth.
- To help build a more robust network of connections on campus between academic theory and learning outside the classroom.
- To help build a stronger community on campus, particularly across traditional lines dividing students, faculty, staff and outside community members.
- To increase the number of Dartmouth students committed to helping create a more just society.
Program Outcomes: Students will
- form an understanding of community and civic engagement, particularly in light of mentoring relationships and social change
- demonstrate increased awareness of the potential for personal growth unique to the
mentoring relationship
- demonstrate increased knowledge of his/her values and identity formation
- demonstrate knowledge of mentoring skills, including reflection, listening, communication, and coaching skills
- apply curricular learning to their experiences outside of the classroom
- develop commitment to helping create a more just society
A coordinated mentoring reflection program will allow students—and faculty and staff members--to work in a "cascade fashion" with people above them, beside them, and below them, as is illustrated in the figure below.
Mentoring to Learn, Flourish, and Foster Social Change:
Undergraduates Applying Theory to Practice at Dartmouth College
Strategies:
Mentoring With Purpose is a collaborative project of the Tucker Foundation and the Council on Service and Engagement and the two entities will play a coordinating role on campus, fostering a world view of looking out for others; supporting the recently-launched Dartmouth By-Stander Initiative (against sexual assault) by engaging students as allies; and rigorously assessing the effects of cascade mentoring on the campus, the community, and the participants.
Project Activities and Time Table (annual, to begin in Winter 2014; First Mentoring Summit and Groups to begin in Fall 2014; based on focus group and 1-1 meetings with students, faculty, and staff)—
1. Winter Term 2014 (10-week term, Jan. through March): Project planning and building further campus buy-in across the Council on Service and Engagement (representatives from ~10 departments across the college); interested faculty members; Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (faculty development); interested student stakeholders (student leaders from mentoring programs, mentees, Greek Life leaders, Men's and Women's Forum leaders, undergraduate residential advisors, Dartmouth on Purpose leaders); and Dean of the College representatives—through one to one interviews, focus groups, meetings.
2. Current and Winter Term 2014: Gleaning new information from and leveraging current special programming, e.g., Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning session for faculty on advising for big questions/developing faculty empathy in advising and mentoring; visiting professors David Levy on mindful technology; Anthony Appiah on identity, civil dialogue, social networking; Father Gregory Boyle, Homeboy Industries; Roshi Joan Halifax on mindfulness; Russ Funk, Sister Outsider, Michael Kimmel and hip hop activists on gender.
3. September: Annual Day-Long Mentoring Summit. Campus-wide inspirational faculty/student TED Talks interspersed with workshops celebrating mentoring, on values/identity; inter-cultural competency; mindfulness; the Upper Valley; and community building on and off campus. Groups meet and work together in Summit prior to beginning dialogue groups. Year concludes with companion Dartmouth on Purpose summit on values formation, mindfulness, and career exploration.
3. Throughout the year: Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning relevant noon-time discussion sessions for involved faculty and staff and other faculty and staff on mentoring and advising skills, mindfulness, community-based learning and research, and social issues on and off campus.
4. Late Fall through Spring: Three Luncheon Discussion sessions per fall, winter, and spring term (9 total per year), on mentoring/leadership, celebrating mentoring, lives of purpose, and building community. Interactive, featuring a social issue of the day; a discussion of a mentoring skill; and reflection on mentoring relationship activity. Roundtable groups of 9 participants would consist of a faculty member from a community-based learning or engaged course; a staff member; an Upper Valley community member; and six students who mentor (through peer mentoring groups, those mentoring off campus, or Greek or interest group leaders) or are mentored (mixed age levels and group affiliations to encourage inter-group dialogue, networking, and community building). An asset-based approach to community-building with attention to issues of social justice will be encouraged. Special attention will be given to issues common to both the campus and off campus community involving gender, race, and class, and students will be asked to journal between group sessions.(Questions to be determined by the planning group of students, staff, and faculty.)
5. Staff person, student leader, community member to the faculty member's class to talk and "teach" about community issues and mentoring as a way to build community. Topics would include social issues considered by mentoring dialogue groups, including substance abuse, healthy relationships, active listening, mindfulness, etc. (To be adapted from the Georgetown Engelhard Project.)
6. Wrap Up Reflection Dinner and video project to record mentoring wisdom in the spring (to be shown at the Mentoring Summit in the fall--upshots, learning, mentoring the next generation of students.
7. Final Assessment: Focus Group and Quantitative Survey. Items to be adapted from the Tucker Foundation Participant Survey, such as "As a result of my participation in Mentoring With Purpose, "I made personal decisions or adopted habits that were founded on concerns about public issues" or Mentoring With Purpose "has increased or deepened my understanding of my own values and beliefs." (Appendix) Will also be informed by the "Locus of Control of Behaviour Scale" and Corey Keyes' "Flourishing Scale."
8. "Mentoring With Purpose" regional or national summit on mentoring co-sponsored with the "Bringing Theory to Practice" project of AACU (would like to collaborate on such a venture). Be part of the project cohort to bring mentoring knowledge to other campuses. Bring consideration of deeper mentoring practice to the Ivy League community service directors' meeting and to Campus Compact conferences and seminar events with Bringing Theory to Practice, possibly.
Timing:
Mentoring With Purpose will capitalize on Dartmouth's 2012-13 strategic plan call for increased civic engagement at Dartmouth, and provide an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to address difficult campus community issues arising at Dartmouth regularly. It represents a proactive and positive vehicle for our new presidential administration to encourage students, staff, and faculty to nurture "citizen leaders" in creating a new campus ethos and new relationships both on and off campus.
Budget for nine pilot groups of ten participants:
- In-kind donation of staff time to coordinate planning: Helen Damon-Moore, Jay Davis, Kyle Ashlee
- In-kind donation of materials and copying for summit and meals
- $250 stipends to nine faculty members, nine community leaders, nine staff members = $6750
- Summit meal: 200 x $10 = $2000
- Discussion Luncheon Meals: 90 x 9 meals x $10 = $8,100
______
Total $16,850
$8,425 from the Tucker Foundation, the Center for Gender and Student Engagement, and the Dean of the College Office, Dartmouth College
$8,425 from Bringing Theory to Practice
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Mentoring With Purpose: Program Implementation Plan
Overall Project Objectives / Specific Learning Outcomes / Assessment / Activities / Resources*Involved students better understand who they are, and who they might become.
*Mentoring at Dartmouth is strengthened, to the point where Dartmouth is known as a “mentoring college.”
*A more robust network of connections is created on campus between academic theory and learning outside the classroom.
*A stronger community is fostered on campus, particularly across lines dividing students, faculty, and staff and outside community members.
*An increased number of Dartmouth students become committed to helping create a more just society? / For all participants:
*Students, faculty, staff, and community leaders will be able to articulate the value of mentoring, and the relationships between mentoring theory and practice.
Students will
*demonstrate an understanding of civic engagement and social change through the lens of mentoring relationships
*demonstrate increased awareness of the potential for personal growth unique to the mentoring relationship
*demonstrate increased knowledge of their values and identity formation
*demonstrate knowledge of mentoring skills, including reflection, listening, communication, and coaching
*apply curricular learning to their experiences outside of the classroom
*develop commitment to helping create a more just society
Faculty/staff/community leaders:
*Will demonstrate increased knowledge of student lives outside the classroom / *Survey data measuring mentoring program's success against past success.
*Survey data on participants’ pre and post understanding of personal values and goals.
*Survey data on students’ pre and post ability to connect academic learning to life outside class.
*Number of students, faculty, staff, community leaders involved as mentors.
*Number of cross-campus and community partners collaborating.
*Number of younger people/peers mentored.
*Media coverage of Dartmouth mentoring activities. / *Plan overall program with stakeholders (W '14)
*Glean learning from guest lecturers (W/Sp'14)
*Plan summit (W-Su '14)
*Create recruitment, training, implementation, debriefing, assessment plan for dialogue groups (W-Sum '14)
*Train presenters and facilitators (Sum '14)
*Annual Mentoring Summit (Fall '14)
*Annual mentoring dialogue groups: Fall, Winter, Spring 2014-15
*Assessment before, during, and afteractivities.
*Summary report written and future strategy outlined for sustainability of work. / * New president who has strong commitment to experiential education
*Critical numbers of faculty, staff, students, and community leaderswho are also committed.
*Coordination efforts of the Tucker Foundation, Council on Service and Engagement, and Dean of College area.
*Existing mentoring programs, strong base of mentoring knowledge and skills among trainers.
*Relevant academic courses, particularly those already committed to Community-Based Learning.
* Far-reaching awareness on campus of mindfulness.
*Inter-Group Dialogue methods.
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Foundational Research—Highlights
"Mentoring With Purpose" actively fosters student psychosocial well-being by utilizing best practices in and evidence from the literature regarding
•Flourishing—defined as a life lived with high levels of emotional, psychological, and social well-being; thriving students demonstrate enthusiasm for life, are productively engaged with others and in society, and are resilient in the face of challenges. Thriving students feel supported in campus community and experience strong institutional fit. They also experience engaged learning, academic determination, positive perspective, diverse citizenship, and social connectedness. Laurie Schreiner, "'The Thriving Quotient': A New Vision for Student Success," About Campus May-June 2010, p. 6.
•Mentoring Theory—Campus-based mentoring supports good citizenship and civic engagement. When mentoring programs combine work in the community with training and reflection, mentoring becomes a "real life" learning experience and a first step in a life-long commitment to service. College student mentors gain personal satisfaction; develop patience, insight, and understanding; learn lessons in citizenship through work with the community; may experience a cultural, social or economic background different from their own; improve leadership and community skills. (Ann Coles, "The Role of Mentoring in College Access and Success," Research to Practice Brief, Spring, 2011, pp. 1-10; Campus Compact on "Educating Citizens, Building Communities/Best Practices in Campus-Based Mentoring," pp. 1-6); Parise, M. Forret, M., "Formal Mentoring Programs: The Relationship of Program Design and Support to Mentors' Perceptions of Benefits and Costs" (2008) Journal of Vocational Behavior, 72, 225-240; Allen., T. Eby, Lent, E. "Mentorship Behaviors and Mentorship Quality Associated with Formal Mentoring Programs: Closing the Gap Between Research and Practice" (2006) Journal of Applied Psychology 91, 3, pp. 567-578; Opayemi, R., "Psychosocial Factors Predisposing University Undergraduates to Mentoring Relationships" (2012) Ife PsychologiA 20, 1, pp. 20-86; Eby, L., Allen, T., Evans, C., Ng, Tl, DuBois, D., "Does Mentoring Matter? A Multidisciplinary Method Comparing Mentored and Nonmentored Individuals" (2007) Journal of Vocational Behavior 72, pp. 254-267; Wanberg, C. Kammeyer-Mueller, J., Marchese, M., "Mentor and Protégé Predictors and Outcomes of Mentoring in a Formal Mentoring Program," Journal of Vocational Behavior69, 3, pp. 410-423.
•Community Engagement—students as mentors and mentees involved in meaningful service—learning cycle of applying theory to practice, talking it over, modifying theory, applying again—in an atmosphere of challenge and support from caring adults and one another. From the AACU—Contributing to a larger community: recognizing and acting on one's responsibility to the educational community and the wider society, locally, nationally, and globally. Taking seriously the perspectives of others; recognizing and acting on the obligation to inform one's own judgment; engaging diverse and competing perspectives as a resource for learning, citizenship, and work are outcomes, as are developing competence in ethical and moral reasoning and action; using such reasoning in learning and in life. (Kathryn S. Steinberg, "Assessing Civic Mindedness," Association of American Colleges & Universities, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 12-14; Caryn McTighe Musil,"Reconfiguring Civic Engagement on Campus: What Are the Levers for Change?" pp. 5-7.)
•Community-Based Learning—CBL courses during college result in flourishing in adulthood, as they nurture "personal growth, purpose in life, and environmental mastery, and contribute to overall life satisfaction." (Nicholas Bowman, Jay Brandenger, Daniel Lapsley, Patrick Hill and Jessica Quaranto, "Serving in College, Flourishing in Adulthood: Does Community Engagement During the College Years Predict Adult Well-Being?" Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being 2010, 2 (1), 14-34).
•Inter-Group Dialogue—Instituted at Dartmouth in the summer of 2013, will collaborate; successful use of inter-group dialogue to promote trust, communication, and relationship-building, capacity to view differences as compatible with democracy, greater commonality between students from different backgrounds, analytical problem solving skills, valuing new viewpoints, increased hope. (Dressel and Rogge, Conflict Resolution Quarterly: DOI: 10/1-2.)
•Mindfulness--Moment to moment awareness of one's experiences without judgment. Empirically- supported benefits of mindfulness include calmness, clarity and concentration (Walsh, R., & Shapiro, S., "The Meeting of Meditative Disciplines and Western Psychology," American Psychologist 61 (3), 1-13). Many studies show that practicing mindfulness reduces stress and emotional reactivity, and is correlated with higher relationship satisfaction, and the ability to respond well to relationship stress and the skill in communicating one's emotions to a partner. Mindfulness is positively associated with the ability to express oneself in various social situations. (D. Davis and J. Hayes, July/August 2012, 43 (7) 64-74.
Attachments:
Tucker Foundation Participant Survey
Mentoring Programs at Dartmouth College
Courses Relevant to Mentoring at Dartmouth College
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