IMPACT CASE STUDIES

Helping Florida Atlantic University (FAU) launch a peer support network to increase retention for first-generation, minority students

Challenge

Connecting students to relevant peers is an important initiative at FAU, as the institution recognized that certain populations (first-gen, commuter and male) were less engaged and therefore less likely to persist from fall to spring. However, FAU lacks the capacity to manually match 1,000+ students and the technology to account for aspects of identity, affinity and life experiences.

Solution

FAU partnered with Mentor Collective to create a larger-scale peer support network to ensure that first-year and transfer students had the incentive to get involved and utilize campus resources beyond orientation. This enabled FAU to engage and support students who often fall below the radar of institutional analysis and advising but regularly face psychosocial and academic barriers in isolation that lead to attrition.

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Testimonials

“Being able to track trends in participation, engagement, conversation topics and flags during the year helps us understand the issues our students face and provide support as necessary to the mentors and the mentees. The realtime tracking allows us to make shifts throughout the year to adapt the mentoring experience to the realities of the student experience.”

Director of Student Affairs Assessment & Reach

Results

First-generation students participated and logged approximately 7,000 conversations with mentors

Insights shared to help administrators direct students to appropriate resources

First-gen, minority students were 4% more likely to be retained than their non-matched peers