Editor's note: This is the fifth in a series of seven articles written by students who were enrolled in Dr. Jennifer Bloom's course, Developmental Academic Advising in Higher Education, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign during the 1999 summer semester. For an overview of the course, along with a description of all seven articles, please refer to Dr. Bloom's article, “Developmental Academic Advising in Higher Education: The Class.”
Programs in which Asian Pacific American undergraduate students are mentored by academic professional faculty and staff are virtually nonexistent. Yet they can prove to be quite beneficial to the Asian Pacific American students' college experience. Other minority groups such as African Americans and Latin Americans have visible mentoring programs on many campuses, but most of these programs are geared to meet specific academic as well as social needs. While a mentoring program could serve as a mechanism to build academic and career skills for Asian Pacific American students, a mentoring program that focuses on meeting identity-developmental needs could enhance the Asian Pacific American student's quality of life in college and beyond. This paper will address a few of the identity-development issues specific to Asian Pacific American students, discuss some of the advantages of mentoring, and examine the benefits of having academic professional faculty and staff serving as mentors for Asian Pacific American students.
Asian Pacific Americans are often perceived as being the “model minority” with few social or psychological problems. This myth has obscured many problems within the Asian Pacific American community and has been used to justify the denial of federal funding, preferences in university admissions, and special minority program offerings (Bhargava, 1998). In other words, the “model minority” myth has been a weapon used to deny that racism towards Asian Pacific Americans exists. For undergraduate Asian Pacific American students, an important identity-development issue is the realization that because they are of Asian descent they have been oppressed by virtue of race, whether they were aware of it or not. Pointing out the derogatory and unconsciously degrading terms used to describe people of Asian descent (e.g., the term “Orientals”) that are still heard today and observing very carefully how American media portray people of Asian descent often jump-start the realization process.
Another important identity-development issue concerns the student's relationship with the family. Many Asian Pacific American undergraduate students come from families where parents pressure their children to pursue and succeed in science- and mathematics-based disciplines. During the student's childhood, many parents have already decided what career their child will pursue, allowing the child little or no exploration of other career options. When these students enter college, they often begin as mechanical robots operating under parental demands, but major cognitive dissonance occurs when they start raising questions regarding their own expression and personal needs. As a result, a total reevaluation of life and career goals will be set into motion. An advantage of having mentors assigned to students who are going through this reevaluation process is that they will have knowledgeable and trusted individuals to listen to them and help them discover their own strengths and goals. This relationship may be the only opportunity a student has to candidly share his/her feelings with an adult figure who will understand the cultural pressure to succeed. Another advantage of mentoring is that the mentor can also serve as a counselor, providing insight, feedback, and perspective for virtually any issue of concern to the student (Asian American Interactive Mentoring Program, 1994).
Asian Pacific American students could clearly benefit from having mentors to help them meet their identity-developmental needs. With a mentoring program, the student would have a safe place to talk about identity issues, a resource for dealing with family pressures, a possible role model, interaction with a person connected to the institution's administrative system (building networks), and the opportunity to improve decision-making skills and, possibly, become more clear regarding his/her major, career, and life goals.
Not only students would benefit from such a mentoring program; the faculty would also reap rewards from their involvement. The mentor would receive respect from the people involved in the organization, develop networks and allies, enhance his/her communication skills, learn more about him/herself, and achieve a sense of personal satisfaction by making a positive impact on the life of another person.
The higher education institution would also benefit from such a mentoring program. Quality interaction between students and the academic professional staff and faculty can lead to better retention rates. This concept is the “customer service” approach that many two-year colleges and smaller four-year colleges seek to implement. The logic is that if students' parents pay for the tuition, then providing all the extra services that will assist in making the educational experiences well rounded will make for good business. Each student is a customer with the potential to spread the word about his/her positive experiences, thus generating more business for the institution. Another related issue is in regard to donors who give private gifts to the institution. The rationale is that a student who is very happy with his/her higher educational experience will become a happy alumnus and, hopefully, a happy donor.
Implementing an Asian Pacific American mentoring program would be very beneficial to the students, the academic professional staff and faculty members, and the institution. Establishing such a mentoring program would help to meet the unique developmental needs of each student and provide an opportunity for faculty, staff, and students to interact. Stanford University is one of the (very) few higher education institutions in America to have implemented such a mentoring program for Asian Pacific American students. It currently has over sixty academic professional faculty and staff members who are each mentoring one student. The University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign will be establishing a program based on the Stanford model.