DIRT: A designed intentional relational theory for near- peer-mentoring

This study explores a theory for near-peer mentoring based on student-led direction and ownership in healthcare programming. Students in the communication sciences and disorders program at Unidentified University built a system for helping themselves and their peers achieve in the program through tutoring and mentorship in classes. This system resulted in a mechanism that was deemed beneficial by the tutored/mentored students from the results of this mixed-method study. Chi-squared analysis of a questionnaire and thematic coding of focus groups were used to derive the data results.