How Undergraduate Students Identify and Utilize Informal Mentors

Abstract

After receiving a broad definition of mentoring, students were asked to indicate whether they had mentors and the types of assistance the mentor provided. In the absence of a formal mentoring program and with a decentralized and loosely structured academic advising program, one half of the undergraduate business majors sampled identified faculty members, administrators, parents, friends, relatives, and members of the business community as mentors. We examined the role and identity of informal mentors from an undergraduate perspective and explored the composition and needs of the unmentored student population as well. Implications for practice are discussed.