Date of Award

5-17-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Mentoring is a widely studied relationship because of the critical job it serves for socialization and integration into the university system. Mentoring relationships can serve as sources of academic, social, and emotional support. Support while adapting to a new environment can heighten overall satisfaction an individual feels as well as increase the individual's overall success. Mentoring for domestic students entering the university is clearly valuable, but becomes more complex for international students. Intercultural communication is an interaction that takes place between individuals or groups who are from different cultural backgrounds. Understanding how diverse our world is can bring better awareness to all who come to the university for learning and teaching. Also, understanding how exchange students from dissimilar countries maneuver throughout the socialization process and how mentors helped can allow organizations to encourage mentoring of international students. This understanding can help faculty and administrators formulate a process where exchange students can rapidly move through the socialization process and become integrated members of the organization. Although extant research has investigated the ways mentorship can be a helpful resource for newcomers in expediting the socialization process, this particular study looks at how those key relationships were identified and transformed over time. The scope of this research offers the University of Alaska a better understanding of different types of mentors and how they help international students. It also shows how mentorship bonds are formed and maintained over time between individuals who are from different cultural backgrounds.

Handle

http://hdl.handle.net/11122/4561

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