Evaluation of a University Faculty Mentoring Program: Its Effect on Latino College Adjustment.

The Faculty Mentoring Program (FMP) at California State University, Dominguez Hills, provides faculty mentors to students defined as "at-risk." FMP aims to encourage faculty-student interaction through a mentoring relationship that will lead to improved student achievement, retention, and graduation and to better faculty understanding of at-risk students such as minorities and older adults. A study examining how mentoring relationships facilitate Latino students' academic adjustment to college surveyed 32 Latino students who participated in FMP. Results indicate that after joining the FMP, Latino students improved on two of the three college adjustment measures: college self-efficacy and academic goal definition. Latino students who were matched with mentors of the same ethnicity perceived their mentors to be more helpful in furthering their career and personal development and were more satisfied with the program than did students who had mentors of different ethnicity. Finally, frequency of contact was positively associated with Latino students' adjustment to college, perceived mentor helpfulness in furthering students' career and personal development, and overall satisfaction with the FMP. (Contains 19 references.) (TD)