Project Pioneer

Main idea

Outline

Project Pioneer has been a project at International Business Communication (IBC) since September 2013, where it started out with 17 pioneer students and 14 mentors. In total 87 students have participated as pioneer students in the project during the period 2013-2020.
The pioneer students are all first generation in their family to enter academia. Some participants have family and friends, which are unable to understand the choice of educational path and work against the educational choice. And some participants come from challenging socio-economic and/or cultural backgrounds.
Recent years the project has evolved to also accommodate students with other challenges than socio-economic, e.g., cultural, religious, gender identity, and sexuality.

Main purpose

• Support pioneer students academically and socially to ease into academia.
• To balance the differences between pioneer students and the typical average students.
• To mend the division between two worlds: background and new university life.
• Influence the joy of studying at the university.
• Increase the odds of completing the chosen study programme.

Structure/timing
The project is introduced during the induction days in September. It is up to the individual students if they identify themselves as pioneer students and want to apply for the project.

The project consists of 3 activities:

• Personal mentor programme:
  Older students or graduates from the study programme (with pioneer backgrounds) are mentors for the pioneer students. The mentors are academic and personal role models, heart-to-heart conversation partners and go to person when faced with challenges. The match between mentor and mentee is based on needs and similarity in challenges.
  Mentor and mentees agree on frequency, form and duration of their connection. Typically the mentorship runs a couple of years.
• Monthly events, e.g. how to organise your life as a university student, self-esteem and self-confidence, anxiety and imposter syndrome, how to cope with resistance from family and friends, etc. The events are often followed by individual talks (if needed), goal setting and following up on goals to ensure action and the learning process.
• Additional support when needed e.g., tutoring, advising etc.

The project also encourages the participants to participate and get involve in study activities such as student unions, study board, tutoring, and different committees.

Goals

• To establish sense of belonging.
• Autonomy, self-efficacy and self-confidence.
• To identify positive strategies to work on when faced with challenges.
• To develop networking skills.
• To develop study and career planning skills.

Target group

• Students experiencing obstacles based on ethnic-cultural differences
• Students experiencing socioeconomic obstacles
• Students with (mental) health problems
• Students experiencing educational difficulties
• Students from non-academic backgrounds

Obstacles targetted:

• Cultural differences
• Educational difficulties
• Migrant background obstacle
• Social obstacles

Students involvement

Students are involved as mentors (volunteers) and one student assistant (employed).

Inspiration and evidence

The project is experience-based. The head of study conceptualised his practice with personal mentorship when he had the opportunity to apply for founding at university level.
In the early years of the project, a more systematic evaluation was carried out, which also affirmed the past experiences and narratives.

Success criteria

The project is based on a role model principle (pioneer to pioneer) and authenticity. It focuses on heart-to-heart conversations and mentorship, where the mentor succeeds in creating a safe space. Furthermore, the project insists on an understanding of the pioneer student as an individual and offering “tailormade” support and guidance.
Personal commitment and voluntariness are major driving forces in this project.

Do you feel you can effectively provide the support that students require?

Would you recommend this to other institutions?

strongly agree

Evaluation

In the early years of the project, a more systematic evaluation was carried out, which also affirmed the past experiences and narratives.

Results
The aim of the project is to balance out the differences so that pioneer students will be equally successful with their studies compared to their peers. One of the results of the project are that pioneer students perform better than their peers. On top of that, the pioneer students in the project are more actively engaged in their studies, and less likely to drop out of the study programme.
Overall, the project succeeded in developing academic and personal self-confidence and an academic identity.

Communication

The project is introduced during introduction week and advertised on the programme’s private SoMe channels. Often new students learn about the project via fellow students.

Timing

From the beginning of the bachelor programme until the pioneer student and mentor decide to end the mentorship.

Day information

After regular ‘school’ hours.

Resources

The project involves a project manager (in this case the head of studies), a student assistant, and mentors.

The project runs on a high level of voluntariness and personal drive from the project manager (head of studies) and a group of mentors, and a minor salary for the student assistant.
Which amounts to time being the main resource in the project. Time spend varies depending on number of project participants and their individual needs.

Relevant students/staff for the monthly events.

Transferability

We think it is somewhat transferable to other contexts or groups.

The role model principle and the monthly events are definitely transferable. The corner stones are the matching between mentor and mentee, authenticity, and flexibility. And depending on the context, it might be challenging to set up a “tailormade” support initiative.

The project originated in practice but was conceptualised via “students in center”-fund. Although, from the start voluntariness has been the prime driving force.