Brandon Dollar, Utah Valley University
College Success Studies
Student retention and persistence to graduation are two issues that receive significant attention and allocation of financial and human resources in higher education. A recent study (Creighton, Creighton, & Parks, 2010) stated that 26% of new freshmen do not matriculate their sophomore year. Consequently, many institutions within higher education have placed emphasis on the first-year experience (FYE). In response to the issues that lead freshmen to dropout, FYE program outcomes generally include student self-awareness (Krause & Coates, 2008), learning academic skills and strategies (Crisp & Cruz, 2010; Schrader & Brown, 2008), connecting students to campus (Zhao & Kuh, 2004; Bell, 2012) and social support (Tinto, 2009; Wilcox, Winn & Fyvie-Gauld, 2005). However, research shows that most institutions approach FYE programming with a “piecemeal approach” (Krause, Hartly, James, & McInnis, 2005) and do not take a “whole-of-institution” approach (Kift, Nelson, & Clark, 2010) where student retention and persistence are part of the fabric of the entire institution. One of the aspects of FYE programming is peer mentoring. Peer mentoring emerged within the FYE programs to facilitate these program outcomes and ultimately, student retention. In fact, an early literature review (Jacobi, 1991) on mentoring revealed four identifiable outcomes of mentoring, three of which claimed to be applicable to peer mentoring and successful fulfillment of FYE outcomes. Some peer mentoring programs emerge from student affairs (Lopez, Johnson & Black, 2010) while other programs originate from academic affairs (Colvin & Ashman, 2010). Aside from the differing origins of peer mentoring programs, research identifies six types of mentoring programs, five of which claim to be applicable to peer mentoring (Karcher, Kuperminc, Portwood, Sipe, & Taylor, 2006). However, there still appears to be no universal approach to peer mentoring in higher education. Specifically, research has yet to reveal a peer mentoring program that comprehensively synthesizes the great foundational work of Jacobi (1991) and Karcher and his colleagues (2006) and maintains the necessary theoretical alignment proposed in recent literature (Hall & Jaugietis, 2011; Crisp & Cruz, 2010) within a holistic and integrated institutional approach to student success and retention.