A model for mentorship: GSE scholars co-author publication on faculty-student mentoring relationships

A recent journal article from researchers at the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education sheds light on the transformative power of culturally rooted mentorship between Latino faculty and students.

Stephen Santa-Ramirez, PhD

Published in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education in September 2024, the article “‘This Works’: The Testimonios of Latino Faculty-Student Mentoring Experiences Through Pláticas” was co-authored by Stephen Santa-Ramirez, GSE assistant professor of educational leadership and policy, and Anthony Vargas, a student in GSE’s higher education PhD program.

The piece offers a reflective look at their mentoring relationship, guided by pláticas—dialogic conversations—and framed as an “embodied counterspace.”

Grounded in their shared experiences as Latino men and first-generation college students, Santa-Ramirez and Vargas explore how mentoring can provide validation, advocacy and humanization in higher education settings often marked by exclusion and systemic inequities.

“Ant and I have been in a mentoring relationship since he started the master’s program in the fall of 2020, which was also my first semester at UB as a faculty member. Since then, we have talked about it all—personal goals, professional goals, academic goals, family, health-related issues,” said Santa-Ramirez. “We also have conversations about how important our relationship is to each other. Our relationship feels safe.”

The safety and security cultivated in their relationship inspired reflection for both Santa-Ramirez and Vargas. “We started having conversations about how the way we’re doing this is working for us—the way that we care for each other, the way that we love on each other platonically, and just support each other in different ways,” Santa-Ramirez said.

They decided their strong and unique mentoring relationship was worth writing about and sharing.

“We are two Latino men, and oftentimes—but not always—there’s this hegemonic masculinity, where men are not really engaging in feelings and being vulnerable with each other,” said Santa-Ramirez.

“We challenge those kinds of stereotypes, which we talk about in the article, to include love, humanization, cultural validation, and just being a brave and safe space for each other,” he continued. “We wanted to showcase this type of mentoring relationship, specifically between two Latino men who are challenging stereotypes of what loving mentoring relationships could be between two Latino men.”

Reflecting on and redefining mentorship

The publication responds to three central questions: How do we consistently show up and look out for each other in our mentoring relationship? How does our mentoring relationship act as an embodied counterspace? In what other ways do we humanize and create embodied counterspaces in our mentoring relationship that make this work effectively?

Santa-Ramirez and Vargas emphasize the value of trust, platonic love and cultural familiarity in mentoring relationships that center on liberation and mutual growth.

For Vargas, Santa-Ramirez offered a source of support, familiarity and genuine understanding from his first semester in the program.

Anthony Vargas

“Being able to find a space and someone that I was able to have real conversations with and not have to put on a façade was just shocking to me. In class, we would discuss serious topics, like our upbringings, but never to a point where I would feel as comfortable with my colleagues to share what it was like growing up surrounded by shootings and gangs. [Dr. Santa-Ramirez] understood me based on our shared lived experiences,” Vargas wrote in the article.

The publication also highlights the need for mentoring relationships that challenge traditional notions of hierarchy and power, instead advocating for reciprocal, humanizing approaches.

“The academy kind of positions us sometimes to be removed from the student… We are challenging that. We can both fully embrace who we are in and outside the academy. And we shouldn’t have to leave who we are at the door,” Santa-Ramirez said.

Stephen and Anthony at American College Personnel Association (ACPA) conference.

Stephen Santa-Ramirez and Anthony Vargus at the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) conference

Implications for higher education

The article provides actionable recommendations for higher education professionals.

Santa-Ramirez and Vargus highlight the need to build relationships that affirm students’ lived experiences, embrace vulnerability in mentoring relationships and adopt an advocate-mentor model that uses privilege to support students from historically marginalized backgrounds.

They also urge institutions to prioritize culturally responsive mentoring practices and provide resources to support these relationships.

While their relationship as a mentor and mentee has served them well, Santa-Ramirez acknowledges that this style of mentorship will not work for everyone.

“There are specific things in our relationship, identities and upbringing that really helped us start the trust and rapport process,” he said. “We recognize that it’s not a one-size-fits-all model, but this article showcases another way to consider and maybe even pick and choose different parts of what we have implemented in our relationship that may work for other folks as they’re engaging with students.”