Cal State Fullerton experts recently published a study in the Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice that examines the impact of the Peer Mentor Program in the College of Health and Human Development.
This program was launched in 2015 and co-created by Ioakim Boutakidis, professor of child and adolescent studies and chair of educational leadership, and Christine Latham, professor emeritus of nursing. As part of the program, faculty coaches across the college’s undergraduate programs train peer mentors to support more than 200 students each academic year.
The study compared recent cohorts of students who participated in the program against a matched control group. Results showed significant improvements in four-year graduation rates for participants in the Peer Mentor Program versus nonprogram participants, with twice as many of the Peer Mentor Program students graduating in that timeframe, a difference of 47.3% versus 23%.
Furthermore, the program also helped to close equity gaps with 34% of underrepresented first-time, first-year students graduating in four years compared to 12.7% of underrepresented, nonprogram matched controls.
Supported by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning, the study was conducted by Boutakidis; Guadalupe Espinoza, professor of child and adolescent studies; Mia Sevier, professor of human services; and Andrea Sadek, a CSUF alum and graduate student at Cal State Long Beach.