MentorPRO Outcomes
Students Who Use MentorPRO Earn Higher Grades and Feel More Connected
Ramadurai, R., Deng, Y., Werntz, A., Yowell, C., & Rhodes, J. E. (2025). Mentor-mentee similarity in college peer mentoring: Untangling conflicting results. Studies in Higher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2025.2572504
A study of more than 2,000 first-year students using MentorPRO examined the effects of matching on shared background characteristics. Matching on race was associated with higher GPAs, and first-generation students paired with first-generation mentors reported stronger engagement and a stronger sense of belonging. The findings were mixed across different types of similarity, but together they offer important guidance for how MentorPRO’s matching features can be refined to produce stronger outcomes.
Goal Setting
Setting Goals With MentorPRO Pays Off in Grades and Well-Being
Hersch, E., Werntz, A., Deng, Y., Jasman, M., & Rhodes, J. E. (2026). Can I help with that? The role of goal setting in a technology-enabled peer mentoring program. Journal of Community Psychology. Advance online publication.
A study of first-year students using MentorPRO found that those who set goals through the platform earned higher GPAs at the end of their first semester. Even after accounting for how often students engaged with the app overall, goal setting remained a significant predictor of academic self-efficacy and life satisfaction. The findings suggest that giving peer mentors a structured, technology-enabled way to support goal setting is a meaningful lever for student success.
The Sweet Spot: Goals and Relationship Together Drive Better Outcomes
Werntz, A., Poon, C. Y. S., & Rhodes, J. E. (2023). Striking the balance: The relative benefits of goal- and youth-focused approaches to youth mentoring relationships. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 52, 1718–1731. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01751-4
A study of 2,165 young people across 30 nationally representative mentoring programs found that mentoring works best when mentors both help mentees set meaningful goals and genuinely attend to their preferences. Mentees in these balanced relationships felt closer to their mentors and showed fewer symptoms of depression and emotional distress at follow-up.
MatchPRO
Making the Right Match in MentorPRO Makes a Real Difference
Ramadurai, R., Deng, Y., Werntz, A., Yowell, C., & Rhodes, J. E. (2025). Mentor-mentee similarity in college peer mentoring: Untangling conflicting results. Studies in Higher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2025.2572504
A study of more than 2,000 first-year students using MentorPRO found that matching on shared background characteristics — particularly race and first-generation status — was associated with stronger mentoring relationships and higher GPAs. First-generation students paired with first-generation mentors also reported a stronger sense of belonging. MentorPRO’s matching features are designed to put these findings into practice.
MatchPRO Leads to Relationships That Last 3X Longer
Rhodes, J. et al. (in preparation). Testing a mentor-mentee matching tool against “business as usual” matching
Our proprietary matching algorithm draws on data from thousands of mentor-mentee pairs to identify the combinations most likely to result in strong, lasting relationships. Internal analyses indicate that students matched through the MentorPRO algorithm are approximately three times less likely to experience early relationship termination compared to those matched by major alone. A full peer-reviewed report of these findings is currently in preparation (Rhodes et al., manuscript in preparation).
MentorAI
AI Should Empower Mentors, Not Replace Them.
Rhodes, J. E. (in press). Human-at-the-helm: Redefining the role of artificial intelligence in student support. Applied Developmental Science.
As colleges move quickly to deploy AI chatbots in place of advisors and peer mentors, this review article argues that substituting AI for human relationships threatens the developmental processes that make college transformative. It proposes a human-at-the-helm model in which AI aggregates student data and surfaces evidence-based strategies to reduce mentors’ cognitive load, while keeping real human relationships at the center of student support.
Vouching towards Bethlehem: What Colleges and Universities Owe Students in the Age of AI
Rhodes, J. E. (in press). Vouching towards Bethlehem: What colleges and universities owe students in the age of AI. Frontiers in Education, 11, 1855989. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2026.1855989[frontiersin]
This perspective piece argues that as AI automates both student work and employer screening, the most irreplaceable thing a university can offer is a mentor who knows a student well enough to stake their reputation on their behalf. It introduces the concept of a “vouching gap,” the growing divide between students who graduate with credible advocates and those who do not, and makes the case for AI systems that free mentors from administrative work so they can invest in the relationships that make real endorsement possible.
MentorPRO Academy
Connected Futures: One Course. Three Times More Likely to Graduate on Time.
Hersch, E., Werntz, A., Schwartz, S. E. O., Raposa, E. B., Hughes, J., Parnes, M. F., & Rhodes, J. E. (2026). Testing the effects of a social capital intervention on college student retention and academic success. American Journal of Community Psychology, 77(1–2), 273–290. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.70027
A longitudinal study drawing on administrative records from a large, diverse public university found that students who completed the Connected Scholars course, the curriculum at the heart of MentorPRO’s Connected Futures feature, were more than three times as likely to graduate within four years compared to students who did not. Passing the course was also associated with improved retention and a higher likelihood of graduating within six years. Students from historically marginalized backgrounds were more likely to enroll, and the course showed particular promise for reducing the equity gaps that too often determine who makes it to graduation day.
A Randomized Trial of A Course That Teaches Students How to Build the Relationships That Open Doors
Schwartz, S. E. O., Parnes, M. F., Browne, R., Austin, L., Carreiro, M., Rhodes, J. E., Kupersmidt, J., & Kanchewa, S. (2023). Teaching to fish: Impacts of a social capital intervention for college students. American Educational Research Journal, 60(5), 986–1022. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312231181096
A randomized study of 550 college students found that those who took the one-credit Connected Scholars course, the curriculum embedded in MentorPRO’s Connected Futures feature, reported stronger help-seeking attitudes, more actual help-seeking behavior, and higher levels of social capital and mentoring support compared to a control group. The course was designed specifically to help first-generation students and students of color build the networks that research shows matter most for college success.
Flash Course Leads to better outcomes
Rhodes, J. E., Werntz, A., Raposa, E. B., Jasman, M., Pichardo, T., Tobias, M., & Schleider, J. (manuscript in preparation). Testing a single-session social capital intervention for first-year college students: The Connected Futures Flash Course.
The Connected Futures Flash Course is a 20-minute single-session online intervention that distills the core elements of the evidence-based Connected Scholars curriculum into a format any student can complete during orientation. A pilot randomized controlled trial with first-year students at UMass Boston found that students who completed the Flash Course (offered free through MentorPRO showed large, statistically significant gains in networking self-efficacy — the confidence to reach out to professors, advisors, and campus support staff — with an effect size of Cohen’s d = 1.23. Students were also significantly more likely to complete the Flash Course than a longer four-session version, underscoring a fundamental principle behind its design: an intervention only helps the students who actually use it. Qualitative interviews confirmed that students translated what they learned into concrete action, including attending office hours, introducing themselves to professors, and beginning to build the professional networks that research consistently links to retention and graduation.
Flash Mentoring
Flash Mentoring: A New Model for Reaching Mentors Who Can Open Doors
Rhodes, J. E., Werntz, A., Jasman, M., & Druilhet Morton, D. (2026). Stocking the pond: Empowering young women to recruit social capital through technology-enabled flash mentoring. Youth, 6(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.3390/youth6010035.
A program evaluation of MentorPRO’s flash mentoring feature, deployed through Step Up Women’s Network, found strong feasibility and user engagement: 285 mentors and 363 young women from underrepresented communities joined the platform over two years, exchanging more than 5,000 messages, holding 316 meetings, and setting nearly 1,500 goals. Flash mentoring offers brief, targeted connections with pre-screened professionals, lowering the barrier to entry for young women who may lack confidence or access to career networks. The evaluation supports flash mentoring as a scalable complement to longer-term mentoring relationships.
Supportive Accountability
Human Support Makes Digital Mental Health Tools Work Better
Werntz, A., Amado, S., Jasman, M., Ervin, A., & Rhodes, J. E. (2023). Journal of Medical Internet Research, 25, e42864. https://doi.org/10.2196/42864
Our systematic meta-review of 31 meta-analyses covering 505 primary studies found that digital mental health interventions are more effective when a human supporter is involved, particularly for individuals experiencing more severe symptoms. This is the model behind MentorPRO: trained peer mentors provide the human accountability layer that keeps students engaged and turns a technology platform into a genuine support relationship.
Check-In Feature
Check-Ins: A Simple Weekly Question That Turns Into Timely Support
Werntz, A., Jasman, M., Simeon, K., Gunasekaran, H., Yowell, C., & Rhodes, J. E. (2023). Implementation of a technology-enhanced peer mentor referral system for first-year university students. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science, 8, 306–320.[evidencebasedmentoring]
One of the most straightforward things a student can do on MentorPRO is complete a weekly Check-In, a brief reflection on how things are going across areas like academics, career, finances, and well-being. A study of the first full year of a technology-enhanced peer mentoring program at a large private research university found that the number of Check-Ins a student completed was significantly associated with GPA at the end of the first year. Students who checked in more consistently tended to finish the year with stronger grades.
The Check-In feature surfaces what students are actually struggling with in real time, and the data showed clear and sensible patterns: career concerns were most prominent at the start of the year in August, but academic habits became the primary stressor as the semester deepened in October and November. Peer mentors received this information and typically followed up with support and referrals within 24 hours. First-generation and underrepresented minority students were significantly more likely than their peers to receive a referral to campus resources, suggesting that the platform is doing exactly what it was designed to do: getting the right support to the students who need it most.
Messaging Feature
Students who sent more messages to their mentors finished the year with better outcomes.
Werntz, A., Deng, Y., Jasman, M., Yowell, C., & Rhodes, J. E. (2026). Effects of a technology-enhanced university peer mentoring program on first-year academic and well-being outcomes. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 1–16.
The act of sending a message to your peer mentor may seem small, but research shows it matters. A study of more than 2,500 first-year students using MentorPRO found that students who sent more messages to their mentors finished the year with higher GPAs, stronger senses of belonging, greater academic self-efficacy, and higher overall well-being. These associations held even after researchers statistically controlled for the background factors that typically predict who thrives in college, including first-generation status, race and ethnicity, gender, and entering GPA. The benefits of staying in touch were not simply a reflection of which students were already on track.
The finding makes intuitive sense. A peer mentor who hears from a student regularly is a mentor who can respond in time to actually help. Messages create the ongoing contact that allows a trained mentor to notice when a student is struggling, normalize help-seeking, and connect that student with the right campus resources before a small problem becomes a serious one. MentorPRO is designed to make that kind of consistent, low-barrier communication as easy as possible.
MentorPRO Is Not Just Good for Students. It Makes Financial Sense for Universities.
Hull, T., & Rhodes, J. E. (manuscript in preparation). Return on investment analysis for the MentorPRO peer mentoring platform. University of Massachusetts Boston.
An economic analysis of the MentorPRO platform found that the program’s benefits substantially outweigh its costs in purely financial terms. Modeling a typical cohort of 1,500 first-year students at a public university and drawing on empirical data showing that each additional message a student sends to their peer mentor is associated with approximately a 3 percent increase in the odds of being retained into the second year, the analysis projected that even a modest 2.5 percentage-point improvement in first-year retention would generate roughly $720,000 in additional tuition revenue — against an annual platform cost of $54,000. That translates to a return on investment of more than 1,200 percent, or over $13 returned for every $1 invested. Under more optimistic but empirically plausible scenarios, those figures rise to more than 50 times the program’s cost. MentorPRO is not just a student support tool; it is a retention strategy with a measurable and compelling financial return.
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