Mentoring the successful graduate student of tomorrow.

In order to provide a more efficacious approach to mentoring graduate students, it may behoove faculty, staff, and administration to develop a new paradigm in regards to the graduate student of tomorrow. Advising and mentoring are key components of a successful college or university experience and the two terms are often used interchangeably. However, mentoring becomes the prominent factor when it relates to the graduate student. A profusion of research over the past two decades has confirmed the significance and profound impact of faculty mentorship on the success of graduate students. Additionally, the authors posit the importance of preparing today to mentor tomorrow’s graduate student. In previous research, the authors found a direct correlation between faculty mentorship, the connection of students with program and faculty, and graduate success. The focus of this work is to review the changing graduate student population, develop an awareness of the significant impact of faculty mentorship, and offer practical suggestions to improve the quality of faculty mentorship in light of future success and challenges. Mentoring, graduate students, faculty, graduate success, connectedness Research in Higher Education Journal Mentoring the successful graduate, Page 2 INTRODUCTION For today’s educational institutions, student success has been measured by a number of variables: retention, graduation rate, course completion, etc. Among those variables, there are a number of constants. One of these constants has to do with mentoring. In previous research, the authors found a very strong correlation between successful graduate students and faculty advisors or mentors (Bain & Fedynich, 2010). Ellis concluded “the success of graduate education depends on a student-faculty relationship based on integrity, trust, and support” (1992, p. 575). In order to provide a more efficacious approach to mentoring graduate students, it may behoove faculty, staff, and administration to develop a new paradigm in regards to the graduate student of tomorrow. Advising and mentoring are key components of a successful college or university experience and the two terms are often used interchangeably. However, mentoring becomes the prominent factor when it relates to the graduate student. A profusion of research over the past two decades has confirmed the significance and profound impact of faculty mentorship on the success of graduate students. Additionally, the authors posit the importance of preparing today to mentor tomorrow’s graduate student. In previous research, the authors found a direct correlation between faculty mentorship, the connection of students with program and faculty, and graduate success (Bain & Fedynich, 2010). The focus of this work is to review the changing graduate student population, to develop an awareness of the significant impact of faculty mentorship, and to offer practical suggestions to improve the quality of faculty mentorship in light of future success and challenges.