All-Around Success: The History of Peer Mentoring at IUPUI

The idea to connect first-year students with peer mentors first emerged in 1997, alongside the creation of University College and first-year seminars. The orientation leader program, now known as OTEAM, was still in its early days of development, and Andrea Engler, the executive director of student transitions and mentor initiatives, was looking for a way to give the student leaders a “more holistic employment experience.”

“We piloted the first-year seminar in 1997,” says Engler, “We then could give orientation leaders a way to continue their role into the academic year.” Having the student leaders present during these transitional seminar courses helped form key connections between students and kept the orientation leaders engaged.

Student success and peer mentoring go hand in hand, as exhibited by the growth of programs like Summer Bridge. In 2001, two faculty members piloted Summer Bridge, designing it as an eight-day program taking place prior to incoming students’ first semester to help them establish a connection to the campus. The same instructional team that leads each first-year seminar also leads Summer Bridge. David Sabol, one of the founding directors of the program, believes mentoring is part of what makes Summer Bridge effective.

“The ability to have students build relationships with peers who are new to college is priceless,” says Sabol, “When we were developing the idea of Summer Bridge, we knew we wanted it to be an extremely active, engaging program. Each mentor’s role is vital in achieving that.”

“We get to know each student as an individual,” says first-year seminar mentor Cody Ellis. He experienced the importance of having a mentor firsthand through a different Indianapolis-based program, Starfish Initiative. “Having a mentor drastically changed my life. I likely would not be in college without that guidance. Now, I want to provide that support for my students.”

To continue mentorship development, IUPUI provides a space for those involved with mentoring programs to share their knowledge. This began with the Mentoring Symposium in 2003. Though the symposium began as a mentor development program for a small number of IUPUI students, it has grown into a nationwide event.

“At the most recent symposium, we had over 400 students attend from 18 states,” Mark Minglin affirms, “It is a great place for individuals from other campuses to come together and talk about their experiences with mentoring.”

IUPUI’s University College took further steps to expand their mentoring programs in 2004 with four brand new courses dedicated to training student leaders on the best practices for connecting with mentees. The curriculum for these courses includes learning about different leadership styles, communication tactics, building rapport, and the delicate balance of serving as both a peer and role model.

“We were one of a kind in the country to have a program like that,” says Engler, who was part of the team that wrote the curriculum for the courses. Mentors take a different course for four semesters, each building on what they learned in the last. The courses not only provide a traditional learning environment for mentors to hone their skills, but a space where all student leaders across programs can connect.

“You can learn so much from working with other mentors,” says Sydney Kadinger, who has mentored students through the Bepko Learning Center. “You learn other people’s leadership styles and improve your own because of those interactions in class.”