Mentorship Program

Transition into post-secondary

The first stage of this mentorship program is focused on supporting international students as they begin their transition into their post-secondary institution. Support is provided by an upper student who is available to support them as they choose their courses, move to their accommodation, and begin classes. This support is focused on the first semester as students transition and settle in.

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Time at post-secondary

While international students are at their post-secondary institution, they will be able to have access to a variety of support and services from upper-year students, faculty, and student affairs professionals as they continue in their studies. Through this support, the goal is to have students progress in their studies and pursuing career goals with the necessary support they need.

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Transition out of post-seondary

As international students consider options after graduation, they will be able to have support from alumni and industry experts who can share information, make connections, and provide direction on career paths. This support is to ensure a smooth and successful transition out of the educational institution as international students navigate many challenge while looking for jobs and pursuing careers post-graduation.

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Mentorship Framework

The framework is a three part process that provides direction through the foundation of the program throughout all three stages of support proposed:

Connecting with others
Creating and seeking goals
Co-learning together

These three steps have been created as a valuable framework informed by Tuckmans's (1965) group stages, Lizzio's (2005) five stages, Chickering's (1993) student development theory, and Rendon's (1994) validation theory. This framework informs the learning outcomes of the mentorship program as well as each of the three stages that students can go through as part of the program.

Transition into Post-Secondary

Learning Outcomes

Through this first stage of the mentorship program, students will:

Establish strong and meaningful connections with peers, staff and faculty
Formulate an approach to seeking support and accessing resources
Develop the ability to navigate the transition and adapt to diverse cultural perspectives with a sense of curiosity and inclusivity

Process

In the first stage of this mentorship program, international students will be paired with an upper-year student at the same institution to connect before the first semester begins. While research shows that it can be valuable for international students to have connections with a local students in their transition (Yan & Sandell, 2016), this often does not happen due to lack of opportunity and intention in the transition period (Arthur, 2017; Guo & Guo, 2017). This mentorship program will have both international and domestic students available as mentors, and the mentees can highlight a few individuals that they may be most interested in connecting with after they receive their admission. A program coordinator will then be responsible for creating mentee-mentor matches during the summer, ideally in June/July so the pairs can be introduced for August.

Once matched, the mentee and mentor will be encouraged to meet weekly starting roughly one month before the first semester begins. The first portion of this mentorship program is intended to provide for international students support and guidance as their transition into university, and will take place over 12 meetings approximately. The mentor will be responsible for reporting weekly on topics and themes discussed. The curriculum objectives and activities will guide their conversations, but can be heavily influenced by what the individual mentee may identify as being valuable at the current moment.

Time at Post-Secondary

Learning Outcomes

Through this second stage of the mentorship program, students will:

Maintain strong and meaningful connections with peers, staff and faculty
Regularly seek support and accessing resources when needed
Develop an intentional plan for their post-secondary experience with goals that they are supported to meet

Process

This stage of the mentorship program is less structured than the other two stages, but allows for flexibility in what the student may identify needing. This is valuable for students based on the multitude of context transitions they may continue to make throughout their educational experience (Jindal-Snape & Rienties, 2016). The intention of this stage is to actively engage and support international students while empowering them to make choices that will set themselves up for success.

There will be a variety of both student facilitated and staff facilitated supports such as social events, language conversations groups, academic and career development/exploration workshops, and immigration seminars. The goal of these offerings are to provide international students the options and opportunities to select the supports, resources, and connections that would be most valuable to them. Student mentors will facilitate weekly social events as well as group mentorship sessions. The goal of these sessions will be to continue to build connections. The students will also offer a facilitated language conversation group so international students can build their language skills in a comfortable environment. Workshops and seminars will be offered by professional staff from academic, career and international focused offices. The goal with these sessions is to continue learning and allowing students to build out goals and plans that can guide them in their studies and career development.

There will be a bi-weekly email newsletter that is sent to all students in the program so they can be aware of what might be available to attend. The student staff will work closely with the program coordinator to build out social events, group mentorship discussions, and learning groups as needed. The program coordinator will also be responsible for communicating with other departments and offices on campus to deliver workshops and seminars.

Transition out of Post-Secondary

Learning Outcomes

Establish strong and meaningful connections with industry partners, alumni, and wider networks
Formulate an approach to seeking support and accessing resources
Develop the ability to navigate the transition and adapt to diverse cultural perspectives with a sense of curiosity and inclusivity

Process

This last stage of the mentorship program is focused mainly on career development and exploration, ensuring that international students are supported and successful even after they leave the institution. As international students formulate their career plans and expectations they will be able to seek the guidance and expertise of a working professional.

As students enter their intended final year of post-secondary, they will be matched with an industry mentor that works in their ideal area of work. The mentee and industry mentor will then meet monthly over the course of the year, to discuss different topics in preparation for the student to enter the workplace. Throughout their final year, the student can take action on their job search, career exploration, immigration plans, etc. with the help of a mentor who has successfully navigated these experiences.

The intention for this stage is to have industry mentors available that have also studied in Canada as an international student, so they can connect about the immigration process and share experiences. The program coordinator will be in charge of matching students with industry mentors during the first few weeks of students' final year. There is also opportunities such as job fairs, resume building and interview prep that can be available, with more resources focused to support international students navigate the different expectations of a Canada workplace, as this is often intimidating and confusing for students (Arthur & Flynn, 2011). Through mentorship and ongoing resource provision, the intention is the successful support the student as they look graduate and step into a career successfully.