The University has extended the length of the African, Latino, Asian and Native American Mentoring Program from two to three semesters, according to a September update to the Plan for Academic Enrichment.
The program, which connects students to mentors of color among staff, graduate students and alumni, will now provide support to sophomores as well as first-years.
Starting in spring 2012, the program will serve students from the second semester of their freshman year to the end of their sophomore year. It previously began in the fall of freshman year and ended at the conclusion of spring semester.
No other major changes have been made to the program, which recruited 36 students last year and plans to enroll 35 next semester.
"We figured the quality of the relationship could be enhanced if first-years could spend their first semester getting to know Brown," said Shane Lloyd, interim program coordinator of the Third World Center.
"The first few weeks of school are overwhelming," Lloyd added. Waiting until the second semester would allow students to determine what they "want in a mentor relationship" and "what kind of support (they) need," he said.
Lloyd also cited various support systems available to first-years, including Meiklejohns and first-year advisers, but noted those resources "don't necessarily exist in their sophomore year." Extending the program through the second semester of sophomore year, he said, would keep students "connected" to the advising system.
Student response to the change has generally been positive, Lloyd said.
Founded in 1994, the program has a history of helping students adjust to college life. Loyola Rankin '11.5, a Native American fifth-year student, called the mentoring program "supportive." In her first year, Rankin was paired with a Navajo programmer for Banner, due to the dearth of Native American faculty and graduate students.
"She was a wonderful woman," Rankin said. "We got coffee the first time we met. It was amazing just hanging out with her."
Rankin noted that her mentor, as neither a faculty member nor a graduate student, was more detached from academic life. Still, she offered a "great support system," Rankin said — even cooking food for her when she became homesick.
"It was really helpful in that aspect," Rankin said. "‘I don't know anything about what you're studying, but I can feed you.' That was exactly what I needed."
