Social Work Commons^™

Supporting College Student Success Through Connections To Mentors And Campus Champions, Rebecca Miller, Jennifer E. Blakeslee, B. Hope

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This brief shares best practices learned on the Project Futures research study being conducted at Portland State University and local community colleges in Portland, Oregon. The study is testing evidence-based mentoring strategies for underserved students, in this case college freshmen with lived experience in foster care and with mental health stressors. Campus-based mentoring is an increasingly popular strategy to better support under-represented students, who in addition to navigating the typical challenges of college life, may face additional barriers to student success, such as:

• Homelessness or housing instability and/or financial insecurity with no safety net,
• Mental health and trauma,
• Starting college …