At Temple University, student success is a top priority. In recognition of the university’s ongoing commitment to helping students thrive, Temple has recently been awarded a grant from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) to create a universitywide peer mentorship program launching in fall 2025.

“Temple is honored to receive this support from the APLU,” said Provost Gregory N. Mandel. “We’re dedicated to ensuring our students have everything they need to flourish, and peer mentorship opportunities foster meaningful relationships and help students succeed.”

The APLU is a membership organization that fosters a community of university leaders collectively working to advance the mission of public research universities. Temple is one of just six universities nationwide to receive this award.

“We’re excited to launch this project, which will make mentoring available for all our first-year students, especially first-generation students and individuals who we’ve identified as most at-promise. They will benefit by forming connections and feeling a sense of belonging as they acclimate to Temple,” said Dan Berman, vice provost for undergraduate studies. “And mentors will develop leadership and interpersonal skills while helping younger students navigate college life. Ultimately, this program will further promote student success.

“Feeling a sense of community and knowing what resources are available increases the likelihood that students will thrive at Temple, make progress toward their degrees and graduate on time,” Berman added.

In addition to Temple, APLU is working with Northern Illinois University, Stony Brook University, The University Texas at San Antonio, Penn State University Altoona and Prairie View A&M University to advance technology-enabled peer mentorship models and collectively identify effective mentoring practices.

“We’re thrilled to partner with six public universities to pilot new peer mentoring efforts, track impact and refine programs,” said Karen Vignare, vice president of digital transformation for student success. “Peer mentoring is a proven way to help students navigate the complexities and challenges of transitioning to and progressing through college. We’re excited to help institutions not only refine this work on their campuses and ultimately add to the evidence base for these efforts across the country.”

The Mentorship for Academic and Personalized Student Success (MAPSS) project, in collaboration with Mentor Collective, is a three-year initiative that aims to build institutional capacity for sustainable mentorship programs, integrate data-driven decision-making into student success strategies, and collaborate and share best practices with fellow APLU member campuses. Mentor Collective provides meaningful data for institutions to identify and address systemic barriers to student success.

During the next six months, Temple will focus on project design, team formation and setup before launching the mentorship program, tracking impact and using data to inform program refinement.

The MAPSS project will build upon Mentor Collective’s existing partnership with Temple’s College of Liberal Arts (CLA) as well as previous work through the APLU’s “Powered by Publics” initiative—a large collaborative effort of nearly 125 institutions to enhance college access, advance equity and increase college degrees awarded.

Since 2023, CLA has used the Mentor Collective’s cutting-edge technology to match first-year students with mentors through matching surveys that identify what students are looking for in a mentorship. In the first year of the program, mentors and mentees logged more than 750 conversations and exchanged more than 3,500 text messages via the Mentor Collective app.

Now in its second year, the CLA mentoring program—established from a donation by Sharon Taylor, CLA ’76—facilitates 250 mentorships, up from about 150 during its first year. It has also expanded to new transfer students.

“The Mentor Collective has rated a higher percentage of our mentorships as being very active compared with those at other partner institutions,” said Assistant Dean for Student Services Chris Wolfgang, who helps oversee CLA’s mentoring program. “I’m confident the university will see the same results we’ve seen in CLA."

Berman is eager to see the successes garnered by CLA’s program achieved on a larger scale.

“This universitywide project is going to be a game changer for our first-year class next fall and for incoming students in years to come,” said Berman. “A culture of mentorship benefits both mentors and mentees and helps knit a stronger community of support for all our students. It is a wonderful way to help our students feel they belong and know they can succeed at Temple."