About Project Mentor
The University System of New Hampshire (USNH) and its four institutions—University of New Hampshire (UNH), Plymouth State University (PSU), Keene State College (KSC), and Granite State College (GSC)—in partnership with middle schools across New Hampshire, have developed a mentorship network that will increase the number of young people who stay in school, graduate, and continue on to postsecondary education. This initiative, called Project Mentor, builds upon a successful UNH program by the same name that has operated in the greater Durham area since 1997. The statewide expansion represents a new collaboration between higher education and K-12.
The Need: While New Hampshire is experiencing relative prosperity, the state’s longer-term prospects depend upon its ability to grow a knowledge-driven economy that is nationally and internationally competitive. By 2010, a significant number of the current “baby-boom” generation will begin retiring, leaving in its place a workforce void that will require more new college graduates to fill. To compete in an increasingly complex world, the number of ninth graders going on to earn a college degree needs to increase, and the high school drop-out rate needs to decrease.
A New Initiative: To address the diminishing supply of well educated citizens and workers, USNH expanded Project Mentor into a network of mentoring programs across its four institutions.
As a mentoring network, Project Mentor staff recruit, train, and support undergraduate students at UNH Durham and Manchester, PSU, KSC, and GSC to serve as mentors for middle school students across the state. Building outward into the communities immediately surrounding the USNH campuses and learning centers, these programs pair undergraduate college students with incoming sixth-grade students (to continue through to the end of eighth grade) to help them to navigate some of the challenges of adolescence, strengthen academic performance, and raise aspirations for college. The program’s unique approach of training mentors through classroom instruction and support in the schools have helped the mentors to impact the lives of more than 600 middle school students over the history of the program. By spring 2007, the number of students served per year should double.
The Project Mentor network complements existing USNH institutional programs, which reach into New Hampshire schools to encourage high school completion, raise awareness of the possibility of attending college, and/or assist students to prepare for college entry. The program was started by UNH Project Mentor director, Dr. Barbara Krysiak, a former superintendent who spent nearly four decades working in K-12 and has committed her career to encouraging students to complete high school and to using mentoring as a tool to help with this process.
The USNH Office of Research and Planning provides management for this effort and is measuring the impact of the project over a 3-year period (beginning in spring 2006). Surveys are conducted on both the college mentors and the middle school mentees in the fall and spring of each academic year. Results from the surveys are used to refine program components and measure longitudinal outcomes related to achieving educational goals and improving college aspirations. Survey results are posted on this website and updated annually.