Investigating the Influence of Mentor–Mentee Race and Gender Pairs on Public Health Persistence

Background. Mentoring and immersive experiences through internships are important means of increasing underrepresented (UR) students’ persistence in public health. However, while the positive effects mentoring well established, studies on effect race/ethnicity gender mentor matching have produced mixed results. Aims. This article investigates impact homogeneous heterogeneous mentor–mentee pairs UR intern for Project Imhotep, a summer internship program at Morehouse College. Method. The authors employ multivariable logistic regression analyses to examine relationship between mentee characteristics undergraduate academic career attainment. Results. Mentor demographics institution type predictors associated with persistence; however, predictive importance model attributes varied by outcome. Mentees paired mentors (female or male) were more likely attend graduate school, mentees mentored female (UR White female) pursue degree Finally, females had highest likelihood either pursuing health career. Discussion. advances our understanding how affects recruitment retention students from racially ethnically populations into Conclusions. findings suggest that shared racial/ethnic and/or identity influenced further education