{"id":695,"date":"2012-12-17T00:05:52","date_gmt":"2012-12-17T05:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cli-research\/?page_id=695"},"modified":"2012-12-19T04:23:16","modified_gmt":"2012-12-19T09:23:16","slug":"philips","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cli-research\/fellows-partnerships\/fellows-2012-13\/philips\/","title":{"rendered":"Gracie Phillips, CLI Fellow 2012-2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gracie Phillips ’13 is a Psychology major and a Hispanic Studies minor. She is researching the experience of Steppingstone Academy <\/a>Hartford<\/a> <\/em>(SAH)\u00a0<\/em>students in the independent school environment in order to provide SAH, her community partner, with an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the program as well as suggestions for an effective mentoring program.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gracie Phillips presents her research poster at the Fall 2012 capstone event.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The title of this research project is The Experiences of Steppingstone Scholars: Implications for Developing a Mentoring Program.<\/em><\/p>\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Steppingstone Academy Hartford <\/em>(SAH) <\/em>is an academically rigorous after-school preparatory program for 6-8th grade students from the Hartford area. The goal of SAH is to prepare students for the transition and rigors of independent secondary school. There are many challenges that SAH Scholars might face, such as tokenism or social isolation, as racial and economic-class minorities in the predominantly white, upper class environment of independent schools. After a review of the pre-existing literature on this topic, a mentoring program was identified as a feasible additional support system to help mitigate the above challenges. \u00a0Based on this result, three different groups were consulted to explore further the challenges faced by SAH scholars and the possible features of a mentoring program.\u00a0 These groups were:\u00a0 independent school Deans and Directors, SAH Scholars currently enrolled in independent school, and administrators at a number of preparatory programs at the middle school level deemed \u201csuccessful\u201d by the SAH Dean of Programs. The analyzed responses aided in formulating a comprehensive study of the Steppingstone students\u2019 experience in independent school, in addition to suggestions for the implementation of a mentoring program.<\/p>\n

Some reflection on current results:<\/strong><\/p>\n

One rather compelling component of the results was that most students felt that the best mentors for a program at SAH would be students who have had a similar trajectory to what SAH preparatory students will face in the future. That is, students who have gone through the independent school experience or even older SAH students from independent school. \"\"<\/a>When initially brainstorming for this project, SAH administrators and I considered taking on Trinity students as mentors because of the proximity of Trinity to SAH. After conducting these interviews I recognize that Trinity students might not be the best mentors, as it would be difficult to filter Trinity students who have had a similar trajectory to the SAH trajectory.<\/p>\n

All students that were interviewed reported that a mentoring program would be a beneficial addition to the SAH program, and that they think it would have helped them with their adjustment to independent school life. This result, as well as the high number of reports that a strong, supportive relationship was the most utilized coping mechanism when facing challenges in independent school, suggest that a mentoring program would be a very valuable addition to the SAH program. This addition should start in the preparatory component and carry into their support services program while the students transition and experience independent school life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read more about her project:<\/p>\n

[catlist name= phillips-uslander orderby=date order=asc]<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gracie Phillips ’13 is a Psychology major and a Hispanic Studies minor. She is researching the experience of Steppingstone Academy Hartford (SAH)\u00a0students in the independent school environment in order to provide SAH, her community partner, with an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the program as well as suggestions for an effective mentoring program. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"parent":17,"menu_order":14,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cli-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/695"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cli-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cli-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cli-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cli-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cli-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":796,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cli-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/695\/revisions\/796"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cli-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cli-research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}