Mentors and College Student Leadership Outcomes: The Importance of Position and Process

Mentorship is empirically related to several desired outcomes in college students including academic success and career development. Yet little is known about how mentorship aids leadership development in college students. This study uses data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership, a national study with more than 110,000 participants from 101 institutions, to explore this issue. Findings show that leadership capacity is influenced by the mentorship process and the type of mentor (faculty, staff, employer, or peer). By focusing on who does the mentoring and how the mentoring process unfolds, this study informs best practices in mentoring for student leadership development.