Peer endorsement is a major influence on today’s college-going population. Put simply, in an age of authenticity, the messenger matters. Forward-thinking colleges are approaching getting students to engage with campus services with this in mind and implementing student success strategies that leverage peer mentorship to foster sense of belonging and uplift critical resources.
Here’s why that investment is paying off.
Peer Support Matters (Especially Now)
According to the US Surgeon General, about 1 in 2 adults report experiencing loneliness and social isolation, with young people being among the most vulnerable in society.
This lack of social connection at such a pivotal time of transition – like starting college – like starting college is bound to bring about emotional stress. Mental health and stress have been shown to be a primary cause of students dropping out of college. While many colleges and universities have invested in increasing mental health support services, a lot of institutions are struggling to get students to effectively utilize these services.
Peer mentorship as a strategy benefits from students’ openness with others like them. Students are more likely to turn to their peers than anyone else on campus if they need support. A recent survey from Inside Higher Ed confirmed this with 73 percent of students stating they feel most comfortable sharing important information with their peers, compared to just 8 percent who feel comfortable talking to student affairs professionals.
Peer Mentors Can Close the Awareness Gap Around Vital Student Services and Foster Belonging
When we speak of a sense of belonging, we envision it in a manner similar to Dr. Terrell Strayhorn, who defines it as “a student’s perceived social support on campus, a feeling of connectedness and the experience of mattering—feeling cared about, accepted, respected, valued by and important to the campus community or others on campus (Strayhorn, 2019 p. 4).”
Regina McCoy, Associate Vice Provost for Retention and Student Success at the University of North Carolina – Greensboro, affirms that goal for her own campus:
“At the heart of every thriving educational institution is a sense of community, a feeling of belonging that transforms a university from just a place of learning into a home. It is this sense of belonging that, especially for first-time college students, marks the difference between merely surviving and truly thriving in the university environment.”
This dynamic was echoed in a recent Tyton Partners report, “Driving Toward a Degree 2023: Awareness, Belonging, and Coordination.” In it, they revealed an important finding: “the report found a direct correlation between awareness of support services and feelings of belonging—students who had higher levels of resource awareness also felt higher levels of belonging in their community.”
UNCG has been at the forefront of scalable peer mentorship to foster a sense of belonging for its large transfer student population. This strategy, powered by the technology and services of Mentor Collective, has increased student engagement with support services by way of trained peer mentors referring students to additional support. Mentors are also able to log mentee concerns for administrators to address, streamlining two-way communication between the university and student.
Conversations Between Students Are the Key to Identifying Leading Indicators of Persistence
Most universities and colleges do not have effective ways to accurately measure sense of belonging.
Universities and colleges are reliant on lagging indicators like class attendance or demographic data. Declining student engagement with staff and faculty has only exacerbated this problem. Conversations between students are the key that many institutions are missing to identify and address student needs.
Driven leaders like Provost, Dr. Maria Cuzzo, and her team at the University of Wisconsin, Superior are integrating insights surfaced by peer mentors with their early-alert system to get a better understanding of which students are at risk of dropping out.
A one-off survey isn’t going to give you an accurate picture of students’ sense of belonging because it isn’t a fixed constant. Students’ sense of belonging changes over time, perhaps as frequently as weekly. Using a combination of formative and summative assessment tools to capture changes in students’ sense of belonging and utilization of resources throughout the year is essential.
Colleges spend a great deal of human and capital resources on student success strategies and services but commonly neglect to tap into the power of peer relationships. Learn more about how scalable peer mentorship can integrate into and accelerate your student success and enrollment management strategies with Mentor Collective.
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