Abstract:

Researchers have documented multiple positive benefits of community engagement through service for undergraduate students. These experiences create a space for students to confront community challenges, develop interpersonal and multicultural competencies, and to explore and construct self-representations and identities. This presentation explores the experiences and outcomes of college mentors facilitating a community service and social action program.

PeaceJam is an international and innovative movement in leadership and civic education. It is a community-based social action program that was created 20 years ago in an effort to engage gang members in inner-city Denver in prosocial activities. Through the course of this program adolescent participants study the lives of Nobel Peace laureates, identify a pressing community issue, and plan and implement a social action project. The culmination of the program is a weekend spent working with a Nobel Peace laureate at a regional PeaceJam Youth Conference. This program is facilitated by college mentors who are studying at a major university in the Midwest region of the United States.

Taking an interpretive ethnographic approach to naturalistic inquiry, we conducted pre and post-program focus groups with 30 mentors, observations of mentors during program involvement, and in-depth post-program interviews with 10 mentors to explore constructs of interest and access the meaning-making process of study participants.

Findings are reported through the voice of college students engaged in the mentoring process through PeaceJam. They describe everyday highs and lows of training and initial reactions to adolescent participants, as well as epiphanies and “aha” moments that were experienced through the course of involvement. College mentors reported positive psychosocial experiences, and the realignment of future aspirations. Notably, they revealed important changes in personal and professional identities.

This research examines how college mentors experience the facilitation of a community service program for adolescent participants, and explores the perceived benefits of program involvement. This serves two important purposes: it highlights an effective afterschool program that engages adolescents and emerging adults in community service, and describes effective practices and processes within this context. This work may interest diverse educators and practitioners striving to leverage organizational and relational assets to maximize positive youth development and community flourishing.