Does peer mentoring increase retention of the mentor?

The Michigan Tech's GUIDE (graduate and undergraduate initiative for development and enhancement) and ExSEL (excelling in science and engineering learning) programs have been using peer mentoring to help retain female and underrepresented minority engineering students for over five years. Mentoring has been a successful retention strategy. Most mentoring programs measure success by looking at the retention of the mentee. This paper will address the question, "Does a peer mentoring program also increase retention of the mentor?" To demonstrate how being a peer mentor helps retain the students who are mentoring, retention data will be analyzed and anecdotal evidence will be presented. Survey results regarding how the mentoring experience has helped the mentor academically, socially and professionally will be provided. Additionally, peer mentor performance data regarding job placement, campus activities, and academic success will be examined and compared to the Michigan Tech College of Engineering (COE) average.