Lessons on Servingness from Mentoring Program Leaders at a Hispanic Serving Institution

"Servingness" is a multidimensional framework detailing how Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) -- which enroll at least 25% Latinx students -- can shift from merely "enrolling" to meaningfully "serving" students holistically. Critically examining how institutional structures facilitate or inhibit servingness is essential for improving institutional efforts focused on student success. Adding to a dearth of literature linking servingness and mentoring, we investigated mentoring program leaders' visions for servingness, along with the strengths and challenges they experience towards serving and mentoring minoritized students. Secondary analysis of interviews with 11 leaders demonstrated that visions of servingness were rooted in promoting "student-centered" and "equity-forward" policies. Strengths included "building belonging" for minoritized students and "implementing high-impact mentoring practices." Importantly, six structural challenges to servingness were identified, such as precarious or "limited funding." These often unexplored viewpoints -- from leaders on-the-ground -- provide vital perspectives and actionable lessons to shift institutional structures in ways that better fulfill a public mission of servingness.