Mentoring as a “Meta” High-Impact Practice: Supporting Success for Every Student in Changing Higher Education Contexts

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

3:30 PM - 4:30 PM East Coast USA Time

Location: Georgetown University - Level M1

Primary Presenter(s)

Ashley Finley

Vice President for Research and Senior Advisor to the President
American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), United States

Co-Presenter(s)

AB

Azul Bellot

Undergraduate Student Majoring in Psychology and Linguistics
Elon University
TG

Tiffanie Grant

Undergraduate Student Majoring in Exercise Science
Elon University
TM

Takudzwa Madzima

Chair and Associate Professor of Exercise Science
Elon University
Jessie Moore (she/her/hers)

Director, Center for Engaged Learning
Elon University
Elon, North Carolina, United States

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SP

Sabrina Perkins

Associate Professor of Psychology
Elon University

High-quality mentoring is a high-impact practice (HIP)—perhaps even a meta HIP—that has the potential to support the success of every student. Students from historically marginalized (HM) backgrounds may face a range of obstacles limiting their development of mentoring relationships. This session, which will feature student co-presenters, will make the case for mentoring as a meta HIP and present findings from a systematic literature review about mentoring diverse HM undergraduate students in higher education. We will share strategies for advancing equity in mentoring relationships, identify evidence-based approaches toward mentoring HM students, and explore implications for the array of mentors (e.g., peer, faculty, community members, mentoring constellations) working across varied mentoring frameworks (e.g., organic versus assigned relationships, programmatic initiatives). Ultimately, we will offer recommendations on how to reaffirm individual and institutional commitments to equitable mentoring as a meta HIP, fostering students’ meaning-making, skill connection, and sense of purpose.