Welcome!
The Stormer Connect Mentoring Program is designed to stimulate student support and success. Stormer Connect Mentoring is an opportunity for students to choose a faculty member as their mentor. (All full-time faculty are required to serve as mentors to students as part of their required non-teaching responsibilities. Part-time faculty may serve as mentors but are not required to do so.)
That’s right! Students choose their mentors. In fact, a student can choose more than one mentor.
Here at MATC, a Stormer Connect Faculty Mentor is considered to be an expert in their field who can guide a student and provide the following: A support system, increased connectivity, workforce preparation, professional awareness and growth, advice and encouragement, enhanced knowledge of internships and apprenticeships, increased success at MATC, and course completion.
According to Veronica Fruiht and Thomas Chan’s article, “Naturally Occurring Mentorship in a National Sample of First-Generation College Goers,” college students in formal mentoring relationships with faculty and community members have higher grade point averages than their unmentored peers (e.g., Campbell & Campbell, 1997; Salinitri, 2005).
Students can check in with one of their current, past, or future faculty members, or can use the assistance of their pathway advisors or retention coaches if they need help in contacting faculty in their field that they could develop a mentoring relationship with.