My Sister’s Keeper: A Proactive Approach to Mentoring Women of Color

• In Event: Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: The Next Generation of Scholars: Navigating Hostile Climates

Abstract

More young Black women than ever attend some form of post-secondary education; however, data on student collegiate experiences as a whole are uneven and this bodes unwell for a segment of the population recently branded “the new model minority”. By focusing solely on inputs (student background characteristics) and outputs (various measures of student success) information pertaining to the quality of the college experience (the throughputs) often is ignored. In the present study we examine the college experiences of Black women undergraduates in a historically Black university with a women’s center and a women’s college with a multicultural center. We find that proactive approaches to mentorship a key ingredient differentiating the college experiences and development of Black women in this case.

Authors

• Crystal Renee Chambers, East Carolina University

• Diana Bowen, University of Houston - Downtown