Chapter 15: Where are they now?: Revisiting the 1995–1996 Cohort of NASPA Minority Undergraduate Fellows 20 Years Later

The primary purpose of many mentoring programs is to assist with career, leadership, academic, and/or personal development for students or to aid in the retention of students. Mentoring can also serve as a support system for students of color to help them survive in an environment that may be unfriendly, challenging, and/or hostile towards minorities. Mentoring plays a critical role in the success of undergraduate college students, especially minority students. To adequately fill this role, mentoring programs have been increasing on college campuses in various forms, including facultystudent, peer, traditional one-to-one, team, group, and e-mentoring. Such programs help to retain students, especially students of color. One such program is the peer mentoring program at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) called the Students of Color Mentoring, Aiding, Retaining and Teaching (SMART) program, which in the spring of 1999 was “developed by the Office of Residence Life to assist the retention and academic achievement of students of color” (McClelland, 2005, p. 2). Under the SMART program, first-year students are matched with successful residential upper-class students who aid the first-year students in making a successful transition to college life. This mentor relationship serves as a foundation for helping to retain and ultimately graduate students of color at BGSU.