Nd Building Bridges

The Building Bridges Mentoring Program matches historically underrepresented first-year students with faculty from the departments that the students wish to explore as possible majors. The program is based on the works of three major theorists, Vincent Tinto (1993) and Ernest Pascarella & Patrick Terenzini (1978) who believe that educational communities and academic engagement with faculty are central to having a positive college experience. In practice, Building Bridges continues the research of Terrell Strayhorn and Melvin Terrell (2007) which concludes that academically focused relationships are superior to informal personal mentoring in terms of students’ satisfaction with college. The primary goals of the program are to help students develop skills to communicate effectively with faculty and to assist students with their discernment of a major. To meet these goals, students schedule monthly meetings with their faculty mentors. Through these meetings, faculty and students work in tandem to explore opportunities designed to give students experiences that will help them make informed decisions.