Talking Stick - July/August 2017 - 43

Betty L. Harrah Journal Manuscript
of the Year

Sherry Early
Marshall University

This award honors manuscripts for their organization, research, and originality
as well as their educational value and their significance to the campus
housing profession.

herry Early is an assistant
professor at Marshall University's South Charleston
Graduate Campus in Leadership Studies. She has
spent 10 years as an administrator
in residence life, leadership development, service learning, and diversity
initiatives and has taught numerous
leadership courses.
In her article "An Examination of
Mentoring Relationships and Leadership Capacity in Resident Assistants"
(Vol. 42, No. 3), she examined if and
how resident assistants' leadership
capacities are influenced by participating in mentor/mentee relationships. Her research utilized a sample
of 6,006 resident assistants using
data from the 2009 Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership.
Sherry, who was on the faculty
at Ohio University when her article
was published, has served as a
co-chair for the NASPA Knowledge
Community for Student Leadership
Programs and has presented at
multiple conferences. She serves as
the NASPA Region II Faculty Council
Representative.
Sherry received her master's in
student affairs administration from
Michigan State University and her
Ph.D. in higher education administration from Bowling Green State
University.

Article Excerpt
"Findings from this study suggest that even one quality mentoring encounter
is beneficial for RAs. In addition, mentored RAs scored significantly higher
than did non-mentored RAs on each value of the Social Change Model, socially
responsible leadership, and leadership efficacy. Additionally, RAs mentored by
student affairs professionals scored higher than did those with any other type
of significant mentor on both mentoring outcomes and leadership efficacy.
Due to the nature of the profession, student affairs professionals, including
housing and residence life administrators, have various opportunities to
establish mentoring relationships with RAs and to help build their confidence
in their abilities as leaders. Although there were some benefits to the type
of mentor and/or the gender and race match of mentor-protégé pairings, the
main finding was that any type of mentoring relationship is crucial in the
development of resident assistants' leadership capacities.
"Housing and residence life administrators should strive to interact
frequently in both informal and formal capacities with resident assistants
because there is a measurable benefit. . . .
"This study examined mentoring encounters on college and university campuses, including the most significant type of mentor and gender match and
race match of mentor-protégé pairings for resident assistants while controlling
for confounding factors. However, there is much more to be learned about
mentoring and leadership capacity. Ideally, more educators will conduct further research and more college students will engage in mentoring encounters.
Findings from this research included that mentoring is a positive predictor of
leadership capacity, and through mentorship resident assistants are equipped
with the abilities and confidence levels to create change.
"In the Social Change Model, the outcome variable is change. Civically
engaged leaders, like resident assistants, can leave a lasting impact long after
they graduate. These students have the potential to transform their communities and society by strategically creating positive, purposeful, and sustainable
change. Bainton shared a useful analogy on transformational leaders by
discussing the impact of boiling water on a carrot, an egg, and a coffee bean.
When a carrot is boiled, it becomes soft. When an egg is boiled, the inside
becomes hard. However, when a coffee bean is boiled, the bean transforms
the water. When an RA engages in a mentoring relationship, she or he has an
increased aptitude to serve as a change agent and transform their environments and communities for the better."
2017 ACUHO-I WALL of HONOR
July + august 2017

Talking Stick - July/August 2017

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