Mentoring At-Risk Students through the Hidden Curriculum of Higher Education
The long-term interests of the country demand that more students get into and graduate from college, and Buffy Smith outlines what needs to happen if first generation students are going to succeed. She offers us portraits of students in college and then delineates the challenges they face in their educational journeys. Smith suggests that mentoring, rightly constructed, can help ‘at-risk’ students succeed and that the real challenge is to help students navigate an environment with which they are not familiar. Thoughtful, engaging and nicely written,Undergraduate Curricular Peer Mentoring Programsprovides helpful hints for both mentor and mentee to help students succeed.(William G. Tierney, University Professor & Wilbur-Kieffer Pr, Director, Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis University of Southern California, Los Angeles)Buffy Smith brings together theory, research, and practice to convey an urgent, poignant picture of what is at stake for under-served students in college. By illuminating elements of the hidden curriculum, she provides a road map to success for low-income, first-generation college students and the educators who work alongside them. Based on empirical data and professional insight, the book adds an important perspective to the growing literature on college student success.(Kristen Renn, Michigan State University)Mentoring At-Risk Students through the Hidden Curriculum of Higher Educationoffers a unique window into deepening our understanding about who is and who is not achieving ‘The American Dream.’ Grounded in solid research, Buffy Smith examines issues related to access, advising, affordability, mentoring relationships, the curriculum and institutional culture, and makes implications for faculty, administrators, policy makers, students, and institutional leaders for reshaping higher education institutions into places where the desire to achieve a post-secondary education is not just a mission or dream, but a reality!(Christine A. Stanley, Texas A&M; University)