Building Stronger Education Pathways through Peer Mentoring for Underrepresented Students in the Pioneer Valley and the SouthCoast

Building Stronger Education Pathways through Peer Mentoring for Underrepresented Students in the Pioneer Valley  and the SouthCoast is dedicated to building designated dual enrollment pathways serving the underserved to Holyoke and Bristol Community College, to aid in critical transitions along their educational pathway. This project is aligned with the funded REBLS: Peer Mentoring Pathways for Bachelor’s Completion by using shared project team members including the project evaluator, liaison, the same peer mentor training program with facilitator and near-peer  methodology. The project will create a peer mentoring network to support students from traditionally underrepresented populations while they navigate their journey. By creating key supports at critical transition points for students, specifically those moving from high school to community college, this project team aims to increase students' sense of belonging in STEM, and improve their sense of STEM identity. The overarching goal is to help students persist through their academic journey to graduation. The project team includes Melissa Paciulli (Holyoke Community College), Bridget Hynes (Director, UMass Amherst Upward Bound), Kimberly Griffith (College Access Advisor, Bristol Community College), Gabriel Reif (Doctoral Candidate, UMass Amherst), and Anastasia Morton (Assistant Director for Academic Support, UMass Amherst Upward Bound.) This year, this working group was awarded a $10,000 seed grant from REBLS to build this program. To learn more about the project, contact the facilitators listed below.