An Adaptive Rural-Responsive Mentorship Model: Insights from Students, Practitioners, and College Leaders. Data Note 3. Rural Learner Success Data Note Series
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| Title: | An Adaptive Rural-Responsive Mentorship Model: Insights from Students, Practitioners, and College Leaders. Data Note 3. Rural Learner Success Data Note Series |
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| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Jordan Re, Mayra Nuñez Martinez, University of Washington, Community College Research Initiatives (CCRI) |
| Source: | Community College Research Initiatives. 2025. |
| Availability: | Community College Research Initiatives. University of Washington, 4333 Brooklyn Avenue NE, UW Tower, T-12, Box 359447, Seattle, WA 98195. Tel: 206-616-0722; e-mail: ccri@uw.edu; Web site: https://www.washington.edu/ccri/ |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 10 |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Sponsoring Agency: | Ascendium Education Group, Inc. |
| Document Type: | Reports - Evaluative |
| Education Level: | Higher Education Postsecondary Education Two Year Colleges |
| Descriptors: | Mentors, Rural Colleges, Community Colleges, Community College Students, Student Experience, Trust (Psychology), Interpersonal Relationship, Holistic Approach, Sense of Belonging, Self Concept, Community Resources, Opportunities |
| Abstract: | Mentorship can have a powerful impact on students navigating higher education. Yet, nearly seventy percent of rural youth from low-income backgrounds have reported wanting a mentor but not being able to access one (Garringer & Benning, 2023). While limited staffing and resources can constrain formal mentoring structures, rural communities often draw strength from relationships grounded in mutual care, trust, and shared experience, foundations that make mentorship particularly meaningful in these settings (Bhaduri & Biddy, 2024; Gantt et al., 2024; Rivera et al., 2019; Yang, 2025). These insights point to the importance of designing mentorship approaches that not only address gaps in access but also build on the existing strengths of rural communities. Practitioners and rural-serving community colleges play an important role in helping bridge this gap. To explore what this looks like in practice, the authors examined how mentorship takes shape within rural contexts and what makes it most effective from the perspectives of those directly involved. In efforts to better understand what mentorship means within rural communities, the authors drew on 27 interviews with staff and practitioners who provided mentorship and 25 students who received mentorship across seven rural-serving community colleges in the western, eastern, and southern parts of the United States. The authors focused on how they experienced mentorship at their college and the factors that supported and/or hindered these mentoring relationships. From the themes that emerged across the interviews, the authors developed a candidate rural-responsive model by adding nuance and specificity to those elements of general mentoring models that most resonated with the themes of rural characteristics reported by the staff, mentor, and mentee interviewees. The authors further refined the model through feedback from a nationwide group of mentoring practitioners to understand how it resonated within their distinct rural contexts. |
| Abstractor: | ERIC |
| Entry Date: | 2026 |
| Accession Number: | ED679464 |
| Database: | ERIC |
| Abstract: | Mentorship can have a powerful impact on students navigating higher education. Yet, nearly seventy percent of rural youth from low-income backgrounds have reported wanting a mentor but not being able to access one (Garringer & Benning, 2023). While limited staffing and resources can constrain formal mentoring structures, rural communities often draw strength from relationships grounded in mutual care, trust, and shared experience, foundations that make mentorship particularly meaningful in these settings (Bhaduri & Biddy, 2024; Gantt et al., 2024; Rivera et al., 2019; Yang, 2025). These insights point to the importance of designing mentorship approaches that not only address gaps in access but also build on the existing strengths of rural communities. Practitioners and rural-serving community colleges play an important role in helping bridge this gap. To explore what this looks like in practice, the authors examined how mentorship takes shape within rural contexts and what makes it most effective from the perspectives of those directly involved. In efforts to better understand what mentorship means within rural communities, the authors drew on 27 interviews with staff and practitioners who provided mentorship and 25 students who received mentorship across seven rural-serving community colleges in the western, eastern, and southern parts of the United States. The authors focused on how they experienced mentorship at their college and the factors that supported and/or hindered these mentoring relationships. From the themes that emerged across the interviews, the authors developed a candidate rural-responsive model by adding nuance and specificity to those elements of general mentoring models that most resonated with the themes of rural characteristics reported by the staff, mentor, and mentee interviewees. The authors further refined the model through feedback from a nationwide group of mentoring practitioners to understand how it resonated within their distinct rural contexts. |
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