Cultivating Care: The Affinity Research Group Model for Mentoring Hispanic Undergraduates

• In Event: Creating Opportunities for Latina/o Student Success

Abstract

The Affinity Research Group (ARG) model is a structured pedagogy for developing and mentoring diverse groups of undergraduate research students. The model cultivates pedagogies of care that enhance students’ care for self, intimate others (team members), and care for ideas (Noddings, 1992). Interviews and survey results from ARG students at eight Hispanic-Serving institutions demonstrate the ethic of care that is created and maintained within the groups. The mentoring and care that students received in their ARG experience contributed to gains in confidence, increased interest in graduate school, professional engagement with the discipline, and care for their research work and their discipline.

Authors

• Heather L. Thiry, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Sarah Taylor Hug, Colorado Evaluation & Research Consulting

• Elsa Quiroz Villa, The University of Texas - El Paso