How Black Women Experience Undergraduate Mentorship for Career Development: An Analysis of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs)

Faculty-student mentorship has been shown to impact students' career development while in college, yet Black women students' experience with this form of mentorship has yet to be explored. In this paper, I aim to gain insight into how Black women experience undergraduate faculty-student mentorship to receive career development support at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). Using semi-structured interviews, I find that college environments of a predominantly white student and faculty demographic can negatively affect Black women students' intentionality in initiating mentoring relationships with faculty. Based on these findings, I offer recommendations that both PWIs and HBCUs can implement. I argue that these institutions should increase the representation of Black women across all academic disciplines to foster approachable environments. The findings presented here give insight into how Black women who seek undergraduate mentorship from faculty to guide their career development can be better supported.