  Successful careers are built on Skills (what you know), Occupational Identity
(what you believe you can be) and Social Capital (who you know). Higher-ed
spends significant resources in addressing the first, sometimes to the
exclusion of the other two - which are difficult and expensive to teach and
administer. This research specifically explores how near-peer mentoring
programs, rather than a stand-alone opt-in guidance, can be integrated into the
instruction/pedagogy by faculty at California community colleges. The research
was conducted at 5 California community colleges (Reedley, Porterville,
Coalinga, Solano and Glendale). A mixed-methods approach was used to gather
social cognitive measures of student self-efficacy, occupational identity and
social capital access. Measures were collected using survey instruments at the
beginning of the mentoring program, and at its culmination. One of the most
consistent measures observed across all the pilots was the increase in student
self-efficacy of skills and competencies (3% - 7%) across colleges,
geographies, and course formats after the mentoring program. Additionally, the
research offers insights in implementing peer and near-peer mentoring programs
that improve course completion, with significant instructional (and
non-instructional) cost advantages.
