Recently, I co-facilitated an undergraduate workshop about intentionally building connections with supportive faculty, staff, and peer mentors. In alignment with principles from relational mentoring, we collectively acknowledged that embracing some personal vulnerability was crucial for building meaningful interpersonal connections (Johnson…

Decades of research demonstrates that student learning and well-being in higher education are enhanced by positive relationships with peers and instructors (Felten and Lambert 2020). Yet, one common challenge with relationship-rich education is scale. How is this possible when I’m…

Since 2019, I’ve been working with my colleague Paul Miller to create an institutional toolkit for fostering both students’ self-reflection and their mentoring conversations with peers, staff, and faculty in order to deepen students’ educational experiences. Our institution, Elon University,…

When faculty consider the many ways in which they can be involved in student learning opportunities, there are a myriad of factors that affect the choices they make about how and where to engage. Work-integrated learning (WIL), which includes activities…

Many universities offer countless student success resources and academic opportunities, but they may not be well-known to students. Certainly, efforts to raise student awareness and involvement in academic offerings exist, but research shows most universities do not advertise academic opportunities…

In the nuanced progression of academia, the senior year of high school often sees students basking in the aura of impending graduation—confident top dogs, gazing down at the bewildered freshmen making the leap from middle school to high school. The…

Over the past few decades, numerous scholars have conducted research on mentoring relationships in college (Crisp and Cruz 2009; Jacobi 1991). Although much has been explored and written about mentoring undergraduates, Vandermaas-Peeler and Moore (2022) recently articulated a summative and…

Successful students often attend class, get to know professors, ask for help, and utilize campus resources, among other adaptive strategies. Many of these strategies for success center on building meaningful interpersonal connections with peers, faculty, and staff, which may evolve…

In the realm of crafting my culinary-inspired blog posts, a pattern seems to have emerged, one that I’ve unconsciously adhered to. So, if the title of this particular blog post conjured thoughts of the iconic Big Mac from McDonald’s, I…

Recently, I mentored three undergraduate research students who graduated and went on to pursue graduate degrees and professional work. Through our mentoring relationships, which deepened over several years and involved navigating numerous unexpected challenges throughout the pandemic, I strove to…