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Academic and Student Affairs Professionals as Mentors: Benefits for Working-Class First-Generation Students

Soria et al. / Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice / March 2023

Female mentor with female student at laptop

The purpose of this article was to examine the effects of having an academic or student affairs professional mentor on working-class first-generation students’ sense of belonging and resilience. The authors used propensity score matching techniques to develop matched pairs of working-class first-generation students who did and did not have a mentor. The results suggest that working-class first-generation students who had an academic or student affairs professional mentor had a significantly higher sense of belonging and resilience.

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