Peer Mentoring

UMass Dartmouth offers many academic and social support structures for students. Too often, students who would benefit most from those support structures do not use them.

Peer mentoring programs help solve that problem. Students are more likely to take advice from other students that they can form connections with and who share similar experiences. Mentors can credibly convey which strategies worked for them, enforcing the fact that those who seek help become the strongest and most successful students.

While UMass Dartmouth has many mentoring programs specific to a class, major, or college, we have launched two new University-wide mentoring programs in Fall 2026:

1. Corsair Navigators: Connecting new first-generation students with experienced first-generation UMass Dartmouth students
2. Connected Futures Transfer Mentoring: Meeting the unique needs of transfer students with mentors who were recently in their shoes

Both programs offer:

• Large and small group activities to help students make connections
• One-on-one support to navigate academics, campus life, and resources
• Goal setting and progress towards goals through evidence-based mentoring app
• Digital check-ins to support escalated interventions when needed

Beneficial programs

External research highlights the value of mentorship programs for both mentees and mentors:

• Mentees had a 4-year graduation rate that was 24 percentage points higher than non-mentored students
• Mentors were nearly twice as likely to persist in college than non-mentors