Minority Student Perceptions of the Impact of Mentoring to Enhance Academic Performance in STEM Disciplines

Abstract

The Benjamin Banneker Scholars Program (BBSP) was designed at an HBCU to increase the academic performance, retention, and graduation of minority students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). At the end of each academic year, students completed a BBSP Post-Program Satisfaction Survey, each year rating mentoring as having the largest impact on their academic performance. This repeated result led to the hiring of an external STEM program evaluator to assess students’ perceptions of the mentoring component of the BBSP. This paper discusses the mentoring model, the positive impact students felt mentoring had on their academic performance, supporting data, faculty mentors’ perceptions of mentoring, and the evaluator’s survey results of the program’s mentoring component.