Cross-cultural peer-mentoring: Mentor outcomes and perspectives

Abstract

Limited relationships with peers and faculty create barriers for retaining racial or ethnic minority students through the academic path to SPHS professions. As such, university programs must pay particular attention to formalized avenues of social support to decrease attrition and increase retention (Cokley, 2000). Mentoring is one such avenue (Wright-Harp & Cole, 2008). The purpose of this paper is to describe mentor outcomes and perspectives of a cross-cultural peer-mentoring program entitled LEAD: Leadership, Education, Advocacy, and Diversity. Graduate students from SLP and AUD graduate programs were recruited to serve as peer mentors to potential undergraduate candidates representing diverse ethnicities who might be interested in a career in SLP or AUD. Using a qualitative-dominant concurrent mixed method design, goals, values, and barriers as well as differences in cultural constructs perceived by graduate students as a result of participating in LEAD are examined. Outcomes and future direction of the peer- mentoring program are discussed.