What kind of development and/or support do your mentors provide?

It was necessary at some point to figure out how the knowledge I was obtaining at university could be applied. Therefore … I worked at a biotech company where I helped develop liposomal drugs … The mentors both from academia and the company helped focus and sharpen my knowledge.

My supervisor [name redacted] supports me socially, personally, and professionally. They make space to check in and go out for lunch … I feel like I have a say in what my role in the organization looks like.

These comments were offered by students who are studying abroad in Copenhagen or Stockholm with DIS, Study Abroad in Scandinavia. They were enrolled in a research course for faculty-mentored independent or lab-based research projects and participated in a workshop I facilitated in spring 2024 on mentoring relationships. Some of their research mentors are full-time faculty at DIS, while others are part-time and also work in Scandinavian businesses and universities. The students were living in a host community with new norms and values and navigating research experiences with mentors from different academic and cultural backgrounds who may have distinctive expectations and standards. Their undergraduate research (UR) experiences in a study abroad context afforded diverse opportunities for academic advancement, career development, and global and intercultural learning (Whitehead et al. 2024). Global learning and UR are considered high-impact practices (HIPs) with significant educational benefits (Kuh 2008). Though they are often studied in isolation, HIPs have the potential to be even more meaningful when integrated, as described in a recent report on Mentored Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts (MUR-GC; Whitehead et al. 2024).

As enhanced support for the students’ learning through MUR-GC, the DIS research coordinators offer workshops on a variety of topics ranging from developing research questions to communicating the findings. The focus of my workshop, attended by over 60 students enrolled in spring 2024 research courses at DIS, was mentoring relationships in a constellation model. Constellation models acknowledge that multiple mentors support various functions, such as academic, cultural, and identity support, without expectations that one mentor will fulfill all these roles (Vandermaas-Peeler and Moore 2023). In a study abroad context, students ideally will develop meaningful and mentoring relationships with faculty, staff, peer, and/or community mentors in the host community as well as the home campus.

During the workshop, I asked the DIS students to reflect on the mentoring constellation model and to draw or map their constellations, including actual as well as desired relationships. By a show of hands, nearly every student indicated they do have a mentoring constellation, though a few were uncertain. The students’ maps reflected their creative, divergent thinking about the constellation model. Some students drew two maps, one for the study abroad experience and one for the home campus, demonstrating a lack of integration across experiences (see Figure 1). A few students depicted not only the relationships they are currently in, but also their wished-for experiences by using different line patterns and colors in their maps, as in the dotted circle with the wished-for relationships with alumni in Figure 1.

As demonstrated in Figure 1, some students conceptualized the study abroad UR experience as finite and bounded, and thus, it was hard to know if the relationship with their mentors would be continued. This sentiment is expressed in the following survey response.

It’s hard to maintain their connections and build out the relationship after a program ends. I want to have a lifelong mentor and I haven’t quite achieved that. I feel like when a program ends, the relationship ends, and it makes me less motivated to seek help.

One benefit of a constellation model is that students broaden their understanding of how to build meaningful relationships that facilitate the development of mentoring relationships. One DIS student wrote they now realized “peer mentors are a thing” and, as illustrated in the comment below, students can help each other establish connections that might add to their mentoring constellations:

For example, if I know someone interested in DIS research, maybe connecting them with someone who has done a specific [UR project] they would consider applying for, or if they are considering a home stay, [connecting them] to someone in a homestay. These are small things … but can make a world of difference for someone considering something like moving across the world!

The constellation model is a useful framework for students to identify relationships they have as well as the ones they desire. After the workshop, one student noted that they were only now realizing that they did not have mentoring relationships on their home campus and asked how they might develop one or more. With appropriate support and guidance, students can be encouraged to conceptualize their own mentoring constellations and develop agency to initiate and sustain relationships through their home campus experiences as well as off-campus experiences like study abroad.

References

Kuh, George D.  2008. High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter. Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Vandermaas-Peeler, Maureen, and Jessie L. Moore. 2023. “Exploring mentors’ perceptions of the benefits and challenges of mentoring in a constellation model.” International Journal for Academic Development: 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360144X.2023.2279306

Whitehead, Dawn M., Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, Susan B. Sutton, Mary F. Price, Kate Patch, and Kris Acheson. 2024. Mentored Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts. Integrating High-impact Practices for Student Success. American Association of Colleges and Universities. https://www.aacu.org/publication/mentored-undergraduate-research-in-global-contexts-integrated-high-impact-practices-for-student-success

About the Author

Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler is a Professor of Psychology and founding Director of Elon’s Center for Research on Global Engagement at Elon University.

Learn more about the authors and the Mentoring Matters project.

How to Cite this Post

Vandermaas-Peeler, Maureen. 2024, October 29. “Conceptualizing Mentoring Constellations in Study Abroad: Students’ Perspectives.” In Mentoring Matters: Supporting Students’ Development of Mentoring Constellations in Higher Education, edited by Jessie L. Moore, Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, and Tim Peeples. Elon University Center for Engaged Learning. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/conceptualizing-mentoring-constellations-in-study-abroad-students-perspectives/.