The Influence of Mentorship: A Study on How Academic Advising can Facilitate a Positive College Student Experience

At American colleges and universities, academic advising has been traditionally utilized as a tool to aid students in course registration and making sure they are on track towards graduation. However, as the student population continues to diversify, their needs and concerns need continual adaptation to be met as well. Students need an outlet to not only discuss their academic progress, but also to converse about how to tie in their interests and passions, extracurricular involvement, social life, and career and future aspirations with their academics. This opportunity for positive mentorship can go hand in hand with academic advising. Through this qualitative mixed methods study, surveys and interviews were conducted with 98 participants amongst different academic majors (Education, Business, and Criminology) and class years, to gauge an overall perspective of how this notion of holistic advising can be incorporated into the current academic advising experience. The findings and implications suggest that utilizing academic advising in this holistic manner can aid in the facilitation of a positive college student experience. Recommendations include shifting the mentality of what academic advising can entail, students meeting more frequently with their academic advisor, for faculty advisors to attend a mandatory academic advising orientation (with supplemental materials provided), as well as better communication to students about the power of mentorship through academic advising