Campus Life

Students Can Find Confidants With ATMentors Program

Large universities can seem impersonal, but Texas A&M University has a longstanding reputation for having a friendly campus. That reputation is enhanced by ATMentors.
By Krista Smith, Texas A&M Marketing & Communications November 11, 2011

Large universities can seem impersonal, but Texas A&M University has a longstanding reputation for having a friendly campus. That reputation is enhanced by ATMentors, a decades-old program in which faculty and staff members have served as volunteer personal mentors for countless students, allowing them to make one-on-one, personal connections at the university.

Nearly 200 faculty and staff members are registered mentors with ATMentors, an organization within New Student Programs (NSP). Students can sign up online to be paired with a mentor or can identify a mentor on campus, as the majority of them have ATMentors placards outside of their office doors, says Emily Ivey, an assistant coordinator with NSP.

Students who formally sign up for a mentor are strategically matched with an appropriate individual. Background data about each mentor is collected so the NSP staff can better match mentor and mentee pairs, says Ivey.

“There are little things we ask of our mentors to make successful matches,” she says. “Were you an athlete in college? Are you a veteran? What was your major? We want the relationship to be intentional, not random.”

ATMentors was a response to the rapid growth experienced by the university in the late 1970s. Faculty and staff grew concerned about the large increase in the undergraduate population during that time and decided to look for opportunities to continue to support students, says Ivey.

“That’s how the ATMentors program was born,” she adds “People jumped on board with it. We are a large institution with almost 50,000 students, which is fabulous, but we don’t want people to feel like they’re lost. We want them to know there is someone out there, someone who can be helpful for their first year and beyond.”

The mission of the program is simple — no matter the number of students enrolled on campus, each and every student will be able to find someone on campus with whom he or she can reach out and connect. Choosing that person to confide in is totally up to the student, says Ivey, but the mentor program exists to show students the individuals on campus who are trained and have a welcoming ear.

“We want the mentee to set the terms they feel comfortable with — the mentor, the time, the place is determined by what they feel is going to be helpful for the student, depending on individual needs,” adds Ivey. “But we connect the mentors and mentees in the beginning. Then it’s kind of their ultimate decision how frequently they chat, how often they go to lunch, etc.”

The possible topics of discussion between a mentee and a mentor pair are limitless, she says, as ideally, any and every topic is up for grabs.

“We want to create a comfort level between the pair,” Ivey continues. “We invite mentees to talk to mentors about anything. It can be academics, relationships issues, social challenges, maybe GLBT identity development, roommate issues, anything you can think of. We want students to feel they can have a conversation with someone who is going to be noncritical and open-minded.”

Ivey is quick to say that the mentors know they are not counselors — in fact, mentors are trained about when and how to refer a student to a counseling or academic advising center.

“The mentors facilitate the connection when or if it’s needed to get a student to a professional,” she explains. “We use the phrase “˜referral specialists’ in the orientation world. We’re generalists about a lot of things, but we need to learn to be a referral specialist when that’s needed. We tell the mentors if you think the student needs to go somewhere, walk with them somewhere, tell them about it, etc. It’s important to be a support and a resource to help students connect.”

Mentors are also invited throughout the semester to “lunch and learn” sessions, where they listen to lectures from representatives from a variety of campus entities, including the counseling center and career center. This helps mentors be aware of the functions of campus offices in the instance that they need to refer a student.

Though Ivey says it would be great if the mentor and mentee pairs stuck together throughout the mentee’s undergraduate career, she admits that as a student’s needs change over the course of their studies, so may his or her mentor’s needs. Additionally, Ivey knows that there are likely mentorships going on across campus where the mentor is not necessarily partnered with ATMentors.

This is more than fine, she says, because this ties back to the overall desire of the program: students finding someone on campus with whom they can connect.

“If we’re helping at least one person, we’re doing what we need to do, whether it’s helping them stay in school, helping them through relationship or roommate issues, these things if not addressed can become bigger than they need to be,” she adds. “Helping one person at a time is important to us. We don’t want people to feel they’re a number.”

Contact: Krista Smith, Texas A&M News & Information Services.

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