Mentoring the Millennial Generation Data from Phenomenological

StudyMary Ann Pearson, Ed.D.

California Baptist UniversityOctober, 2013

Background:

• I have worked with University Journalism and Public Relations students since 2005 when I joined California Baptist University as the Faculty Adviser for student publications.

• I tried many research based approaches as I worked to guide the students to achieve excellence.

Doctoral Study-2010

• I have three areas of passion• Research based education/leadership• Journalism• Public Relations

Experience

• Worked in Journalism and Public Relations• Taught elementary school in a public school• Served as a professor and faculty

adviser/program director at California Baptist University and CBU Online and Professional Studies

Interviews for the study-

• The interviews were conducted in 2009. Social media was a fairly new communication platform and I used social media methods to research interviewees. I interviewed 25 seniors or recent graduates from schools located across the country. The students were all involved in student publications and they were members of College Media Advisers.

Emergent Themes

• Faking It• Experiential Learning-Working as a

Team/Mentoring Relationships• External Networking- Making a Difference,

Understanding How Things Work

Stories-Students who were involved in student publications said the learned best by participating in Mentoring Relationships.

MartyJillTammy

Essence of Mentoring-

• Mentoring relationships help students learn to improve writing skills by meeting with mentors and working through articles line by line discussing articles and edits.

Essence…

• “Learning took place as we networked and met with mentors. We appreciated mentors who invited us into their world and allowed us to take advantage of established relationships. They offered us advise and encouragement at every step.”

Creating a Mentoring Culture-

• Participants in the study defined effective educational experiences as learning that took place through mentors and mentees meeting on a regular basis.

• These students who communicated primarily with social media and text messaging-longed for face to face communication with mentors.

Creating a Mentoring Culture

• After completing the interviews and the dissertation, I went back to my position of Faculty Adviser for the student publications, determined to create a mentoring culture. I created a mentoring program. Senior student editors mentored underclassmen and I mentored the seniors.

The Importance of a Standardized Program-

• Protégé/Mentee – The person assigned to work with a Guide or a Mentor. Usually a protégé is…(new hire, at-risk student, etc.)

• Guide/Buddy – A more experienced person assigned to work with and support a protégé who has enough knowledge and experience to need less than full scale mentoring.

• Mentor - A more experienced person assigned to work with and support a protégé who has little or no previous knowledge and experience to do what’s expected of them.

Transformational/Servant Leadership and Mentoring

• I implemented leadership training to provide skills in transformational and servant leadership.

• Servant- http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/sl_proceedings/2005/spears_practice.pdf

• Transformational- http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/theories/burns_transformational.htm

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How does mentoring look in an online environment-

• After a promotion to the position of Program Director for the Master of Arts in Public Relations in 2012. I left my position of faculty adviser for the student publications and began teaching online and hybrid courses.

How does mentoring look in an online program?

• We use blogs, twitter, facebook, text messages, Web Ex and in office/phone meetings, phone conferences.

• The act of mentoring remains the same but platform is different-it is online and hybrid

• Plans are underway to begin a mentoring program for new faculty and for students.

• Thanks and this presentation can be found at slide share.