MEC Navigation Program

The Multi-Ethnic Engagement and Education Center facilitates the Navigation mentoring program that pairs students with a faculty or staff member who will serve as their Navigation Partner throughout their journey at the University of Dayton. A Navigation Partner can answer questions, be a listening ear, and connect students with resources and opportunities for success.  

Student engagement with faculty members outside of the classroom has been consistently found to promote student persistence, educational aspirations, and degree completion (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991, 2005). Positive faculty relationships have been shown to predict student learning and other positive outcomes for African-American, Latino/a, Asian, and Native American students (Kuh & Hu, 2001; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Tinto, 1993). We offer this program as we believe that this is an experience that all students will find valuable.

Program Goals

As a result of offering this program, we hope to achieve the following:

• Promote the academic success and academic engagement of multicultural students through increased faculty and staff interaction outside of the classroom
• Promote retention and persistence of multicultural students
• Increase the sense of belonging of multicultural students within the UD community
• Promote the exploration of leadership opportunities both on and off campus
• Assist students in reflecting on their career goals

Learning Outcomes

As a result of participation in the MEC Navigation Program, students will be able to:

• Name at least one other faculty or staff resource with whom they have met during the semester.
• Name at least one campus resource.
• Describe at least one leadership or involvement opportunity.
• Describe at least one semester goal they set for themselves and 2-4 mini goals or actions they took to work toward achieving their goal.