Introduction

For faculty and administrators, the authors demonstrate the value of mentoring and its effects on the persistence, retention, and success of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students. It offers the reader the theoretical foundation and a practical framework for developing a sustained mentoring practice and support system, enabling BIPOC students to persist and succeed, by validating their assets, intellectual skills, and perspectives. BIPOC students have a long history of experiencing exclusion and systemic inequity in higher education. In traditional mentoring, little has been studied about the role of power in the relationship, the impact power and race can have on the shaping of a mentoring relationship, or the inspirational effect of respectful collaboration between mentee and mentor. The practice of mentoring has been critiqued for its hierarchical nature and the limited attention placed on the power structure and ethnocentric processes in these relationships.