Disparities in education access have been exacerbated by the pandemic. Children in communities with less access to education often experience additional vulnerability outside the classroom, compounding the gap between their education and that of other children. Given the paramount role that education plays in personal development, disparities in education pose a threat to the future of communities. Drawing on prior research and the success of the Texas Tech University Honors College’s Bayless Elementary Mentoring Program in Lubbock, Texas, we propose the intervention of partnering struggling students in impoverished communities with high-achieving university students in mentoring relationships that involve one-on-one academic tutoring as well as companionship. To represent the steps of the intervention, we propose the IPBMO model: "I" for Identify, "P" for partner, "B" for Befriend, "M" for Mentor, and "O" for Observe. In the Identify stage, students struggling academically or socially should be noticed. In the Partner stage, identified students should be teamed up with a high-achieving university student whose personality matches the younger student’s temperament well. In the Befriend stage, the university student and the younger student form a bond that increases trust between the two individuals. In the Mentor stage, the university student tutors and advises the younger student on school, all while continuing friendship development. In the Observe stage, any changes in the younger student’s outcomes should be observed to ascertain the efficacy of the intervention. This model serves to be a good template to close the gap of disparities in education.

Authors:
Garren Ferreira, Texas Tech University, United States
Aarsh Ray, Texas Tech University, United States
Adarsh Hullahalli, The University of Texas at Austin, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Garren Ferreira is a STEM MBA student at the Texas Tech University Rawls College of Business. His prior research has been in the biological sciences, and his current interests involve integrating his interest in science with the social sciences.

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