Happy New Year!
January is recognized as National Mentoring Month—a time to reflect on and celebrate the profound impact mentors have throughout our personal and professional journeys. Centering mentorship has been a core focus of my presidency, particularly in how it shapes and strengthens our work with students, faculty, and staff across higher education. At the heart of this commitment is the theme Mentoring with Purpose: Building Networks of Support in Higher Education. Through my own experiences, I have witnessed the transformative power of intentional, relational mentoring. In today’s increasingly complex educational landscape, cultivating strong networks of support is not only meaningful—it is essential for sustaining individuals and advancing our collective work. As we mark National Mentoring Month, I want to highlight several initiatives from this presidency that have elevated scholarship, practice, and service focused on mentoring.
One such initiative in ACPA is the work led by Drs. Cameron Beatty and Criss Salinas, who guided a team of graduate students, faculty, and higher-education administrators in developing resources centered on equity-minded mentoring in student affairs. This task force report offers a comprehensive framework and set of tools to support equity-minded, identity-conscious mentoring practices across the field. Aligned with ACPA’s Strategic Imperative for Racial Justice and Decolonization (SIRJD), the report reimagines mentoring as an intersectional and culturally responsive practice that actively challenges systemic inequities. By centering race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, social class, disability, immigration status, and other social identity experiences, the framework positions mentoring as a powerful vehicle for both professional development and personal growth.
This emphasis on identity-conscious mentoring was also advanced through a special issue of ACPA’s About Campus, guest edited by Drs. Stephanie Hernandez Rivera and Emily Krechel. The issue invites readers to reimagine mentoring by emphasizing the importance of intentional, meaningful relationships. Framed through an identity-conscious lens, it calls attention to the need to acknowledge difference, interrogate power, and center relationality as a site of growth, care, and transformation. In doing so, it urges us to name the realities of oppressive systems and exclusion in our institutions while uplifting the knowledge, practices, and strategies of marginalized communities to imagine and work toward more just possibilities. Each of these publications will be made available to ACPA over the coming months.
These conversations were further amplified at the 2025 ACPA/ASHE Presidential Symposium (26 September 2025), themed Imagining the Path Forward: History, Mentorship, and Critical Hope in Higher Education. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Eboni Zamani-Gallaher, the 2025 ASHE President, for her leadership, collaboration, and wisdom in bringing this vision to life. The symposium created space to examine the complexities of the current higher-education landscape while envisioning new possibilities for the future. A featured panel, Mentoring & Community-Driven Solutions, explored mentoring as both a sustaining force for individuals and a transformative strategy for communities. Drawing on lived experiences, research, and culturally responsive practices, panelists highlighted how community partnerships and coalition-building can expand the reach and impact of mentoring, inviting participants to consider mentoring as both deeply personal and profoundly collective.
That conversation continued beyond the symposium through a forthcoming Student Affairs Now podcast episode titled Mentoring and Community-Driven Solutions. Featuring several of the original panelists—mentors, mentees, scholars, and community builders—the episode explores how identity and positionality shape mentoring relationships, how culturally responsive practices foster inclusivity, and how community partnerships extend mentoring’s impact. The episode will be available in January 2026.
Building on these efforts, I invite those attending the ACPA26 Convention in Baltimore to join us for the culmination of this work through a live podcast taping, Round About Campus Presents: A Live Episode on Equity-Minded Mentoring. Aligned with my presidential address, this live recording extends my call to “mentor with purpose.” Round About Campus co-hosts Alex C. Lange and Z Nicolazzo will be joined by me and additional guests for a dynamic conversation on equity-minded mentoring—one that weaves together student development, practical resources, and a renewed commitment to mentoring with intention.
In addition to these scholarly and practice-based initiatives, I am excited to share that we have officially met—and exceeded—our fundraising goal. This milestone reflects our collective belief in the power of mentorship and our shared commitment to advancing educational equity. Because of this generosity, the initiative will provide critical support for textbooks and academic supplies for Cristo Rey Jesuit High School graduates—many of whom are first-generation college students—as they begin their college journeys in Fall 2026. The scholarship application will open to students at Cristo Rey in January 2026, with recipients selected and recognized at the ACPA26 Annual Convention in Baltimore. I am excited to share more about the remarkable students who will receive these awards in the months ahead.
Finally, the 2026 Anne S. Pruitt Presidential Citation—named in honor of the first Black woman to serve as ACPA President—is awarded by the sitting president to individuals who have played a meaningful and influential role during their presidency. This year, I selected three individuals who represent both the past and present of my journey to and through this presidency. I look forward to celebrating and honoring them at ACPA26 in Baltimore:
- Tracey Cameron, Associate Vice President & Dean of Students, Salve Regina University
- Jon Dooley, Vice President of Student Life and Associate Professor of Education, Elon University
As we move through this month, I invite readers to pause and reflect on the following prompts related to their own mentoring journeys:
- In what ways has mentoring functioned as both a personal source of care and a collective tool for change in your life?
- How does your positionality shape the way you engage in mentoring relationships—as a mentor, mentee, or both?
- What possibilities emerge when mentoring is practiced collectively and grounded in cultural responsiveness, joy, and community partnership?
Thank you, and I look forward to seeing many of you in Baltimore, Maryland, from March 30–April 2, for the ACPA26 Annual Convention.
Jonathan A. McElderry, Ph.D.
2025–2026 President
ACPA–College Student Educators International