Mentoring, Advocacy, and Leadership: Revisiting First-Year Student Advocate Award Recipients

Abstract

This study revisited research on award-winning campus leaders who were effective change agents working on the behalf of first-year students (Anttonen & Chaskes, 2002). Participants were recipients of the “Outstanding First- Year Student Advocate Award” given annually by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition from 1990–2004. The results of the revised survey revealed the female and male First- Year Student Advocates (N = 64) to be senior members in length of service at their institutions (M age = 14.9 years). The research gathered data concerning each Advocate’s perceptions of their own advocacy and mentoring backgrounds and whether they were passing these skills to the next generation of Advocates. The study validated that the Anttonen and Chaskes Skill Set (2005) from the earlier research on First-Year Advocate Award Recipients was passed on to their protégés and being a “change agent” was an important component in this process.