Successful STEM Mentoring Initiatives for Underrepresented Students

Book excerpt: This is a step-by-step, research-based guide for higher education faculty and administrators who are charged with designing mentoring programs to recruit and retain students from underrepresented groups. The book describes the real and perceived barriers that underrepresented students--to include women, students of color, transfer students, and first-generation college students--encounter when considering enrollment, or participating, in science courses; considers the issues they face at the various transitions in their education, from entering college to declaring a major and moving on to a profession; and sets out the range of mentoring options available to program designers.