Graduate Communities for Academic Fellowship & Efficacy (Grad CAFE): A Holistic Multi-tiered Mentoring Model

Grad CAFE is a transformational mentoring program that provides a holistic, strengths-based, community-building approach to mentoring graduate students with a cross-disciplinary, intersectional, multi-tiered model from start-up to scale-up that is easily replicated. Three key issues are addressed:

      1. Decreased mental health and well-being among graduate students,

      2. Local and national lack of diversity in STEM programs, and

      3. Gaps in retention and completion for underrepresented graduate students.

The Grad CAFE model has the potential to reshape graduate student mentoring nationally and internationally by moving from a one-to-one top-down approach to a community and strengths-based approach that will positively impact the mental health and well-being of graduate students, address the local and national lack of diversity in STEM programs, and close achievement gaps in retention and degree completion for underrepresented graduate students in STEM.

Grad CAFE’s theoretical framework addresses Wai-Ling Packard’s factors impacting student persistence using three of the four major components of HSI “servingness” identified by Garcia, Núñez, and Sansone (2019; described below). Wai-Ling Packard (2016) identified three factors impacting students’ persistence in STEM: capacity, interest, and belonging. Capacity refers to the ability to learn and demonstrate competence in STEM, which is indicated, in part, by grades in classes. Capacity also refers to the student’s sense of self-efficacy or confidence in their ability to persist and achieve in STEM. Interest refers to a student’s perception that STEM is relevant, useful, and feasible for their future. Belongingness refers to a sense of shared identity. Belongingness is a particularly critical factor for underrepresented individuals in STEM, as the current demographics of the STEM workforce can send a negative signal to underrepresented students about how they fit into STEM (McGee, 2020).

Garcia et al. (2019) described four major components of ‘servingness’ at HSIs: outcomes, experiences, internal organizational dimensions, and external influences. As we cannot impact external influences, we focus on the first three components here. Outcomes include both academic variables, such as retention and completion, as well as non-academic variables, such as academic identity and sense of belonging. Experiences include student-student interactions and interactions with faculty, staff, and other members of the larger community. Internal organizational dimensions include factors that negatively or positively affect Hispanic students such as culturally relevant curriculum and a focus on servingness by institutional leaders. As UArizona is one of a select few R1 HSIs, Garcia et al.’s (2019) framework is relevant for creating a program that addresses diversity issues in STEM and fits in with our mission as an HSI.

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