Mentoring: The College Freshman Female Perspective

Grant-Vallone, Reid, Umali, and Pohlert (2004) outlined how students who regularly take advantage of student support services, mentoring, or academic support programing opportunities are more likely to accomplish their academic goals. Postsecondary institutions are responsible for providing innovative educational experiences to students. Proactively identifying key delimiting factors that inhibit student achievement can increase the persistence and retention rates of critical populations. Mentoring relationships are especially crucial to the academic achievement and successful matriculation of first-year freshman students. Approximately one out of three freshmen does not successfully matriculate to the second year of the collegiate endeavor (U.S. News & World Report, 2014). Through same gendered mentoring relationships, female students can positively enhance their life and educational involvements (Carroll, 1997). The relationship between mentoring experiences of first-year female college students positively affects their academic achievement and selfefficacy as they relate to their matriculation throughout college