Mary Grutta (3283)

I have actively sought out opportunities to be involved in mentoring as a college student. From supporting Girls on the Run to being a member of the Honor Council to participating in the William and Mary Women’s Mentoring program, I try to include a focus on mentorship in almost all of my extracurricular activities.

I have also found ways to read and write about issues relevant to mentoring and development in classes such as Research Methods, Adolescence, and Developmental Psychology. In the Fall of 2016, I began my independent research where I learned more deeply about factors involved successful mentoring relationships. I joined Dr. Raposa’s lab in the Psychology department, where I became fascinated by the research process in a study designed to determine which mentor and youth characteristics predict a successful mentoring match in youth mentoring programs.

At the same time, I was also starting my minor in Management and Organizational Leadership. I quickly noticed a significant overlap between the concepts I was learning in my psychology classes and independent research, and the real-world application of these concepts within the realm of business.

Together, these experiences piqued my interest in a specific area of mentoring. I became interested in uncovering how mentoring during the transition to adulthood has an impact on young adults’ vocational outcomes. While my past research experiences have focused on mentoring in a younger population, this study will allow me to generalize mentoring concepts to the development of emerging adults.