Alan Llavore | Office of Marketing and Communications | (909) 537-5007 | allavore@csusb.edu
Being a good mentor requires a number of essential qualities: good listening skills; honest, constructive feedback; establishing mutual respect and trust; and being engaged and open. At Cal State San Bernardino, faculty members demonstrate an extraordinary commitment to providing personalized attention and creating mentoring relationships that inspire each student to achieve personal and professional success.
One such relationship is that of mentee Erick Herrera (they/them), a CSUSB senior, and their mentor, Megan Carroll (she/her), associate professor of sociology. The connection between the two exemplifies the supportive and intellectually enriching environment at CSUSB, where students and faculty members collaborate to push academic boundaries.
When Herrera began attending Cal State San Bernardino in 2021, their enthusiasm for academics had become somewhat diminished. They had finished their last two years of high school in Rialto during the pandemic, and, they said, “I wanted to find new interests that I would feel passionate about. I felt that the curriculum in the high school setting was a little more rigid and not as expansive as I would have liked.” Like many CSUSB students, Herrera is the child of immigrants — their mother, from Guatemala, completed some high school, and their father, from Mexico, completed middle school.
Herrera started out at CSUSB as an undeclared major, and because of COVID restrictions, most classes were only offered virtually. “When I began my first semester in college, I took an online sociology course with my current mentor, Professor Megan Carroll, and I took an ethnic studies course with a different professor. Between those two courses I really enjoyed how much more I was learning.
“Before, I felt I was getting stagnant with my knowledge. But in the first semester, I found the knowledge that I'd been seeking. Once I got access to that knowledge, things just started snowballing. I got a new spark for my interest and passion — those courses were the foundation for my interest in academia,” they said.
Today, Herrera is double-majoring in sociology and ethnic studies with a minor in gender and sexuality studies. And, as a Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholar and a Mellon Mays Scholar, their primary research interest looks at gender, sexuality, race and national identity. After graduating in Spring 2025, Herrera plans to pursue a doctoral degree.
“When I applied for the Mellon Mays Fellowship, I was asked to name a mentor on campus and I immediately thought of Dr. Carroll,” they said. “She got me interested in sociology. I really enjoyed how she talked about theory in different ways, about the applications of community and about the specific lens that she holds for herself within her research,” Herrera said. “There are also very few sociology professors that talk about queerness, and Dr. Carroll is the only person I know that talks about it very openly. It's a primary focus of her own research, and I wanted the opportunity to be her mentee.”
Mentees Have Opportunities to Contribute to their Fields of Study
Carroll is a sociologist of LGBTQ+ families, with expertise in the sociology of gender, families, sexualities and social movements. She joined CSUSB in May 2019 just as she was completing her Ph.D. at the University of Southern California. “I went straight from Ph.D. to faculty here,” she said.
While teaching during the pandemic, Carroll first encountered Herrera in her online Intro to Sociology class. “This was a class of 200 students, and most were just doing their work with minimal contact,” she said. “Erick was one of the very few students who would come to office hours and engage a little bit deeper in the material. Erick was especially curious about what we were learning.”
Carroll was initially concerned about not having graduate students to mentor when she joined CSUSB. “I thought that without graduate students, I wouldn't get to see students who are really developing their own ideas for the first time or contributing to the field for the first time. Erick has shown me that that's absolutely not true,” she said. “As undergraduate students, they have the power to contribute to conversations that are happening in the field and develop their own projects, their own data, their own perspectives that faculty might not have thought of. I think Erick really embodies what happens when students take the reins on their own education and think through what's possible for themselves.”
Carroll’s impact on Herrera has been instrumental as they have developed and honed their academic interests. “Dr. Carroll has always left space in a way that let me explore my own interests,” Herrera said. “She was there not to tell me what to do, but to guide me. Even if she didn't know how to tackle what I wanted to do and didn't have her own background in that area, she always left that space for me to explore. She always tried to get the answers. She always helped try to turn me in a certain direction where I could find what I wanted to pursue.”
Individualized Attention that Supports Each Student
At Cal State San Bernardino, nearly 80 percent of the student body is comprised of first-generation college-goers, and more than 50 percent are low income. An integral part of the university’s mission is to serve its diverse student population by tailoring educational opportunities to meet their unique needs and providing individualized attention that supports and challenges each student to become their best self.
“I think that mentoring at CSUSB is really unique because I get to feel like I am making a difference in the world. I am helping students who are underrepresented in university settings to become more empowered and to obtain an education and empower their families in turn,” Carroll said. “Erick's journey is as someone who's marginalized across axes of ethnicity and gender, and Erick is bringing a background that is emblematic of CSUSB's diversity. That makes working here so rewarding.”
Herrera places a high value on the perspective they’ve gained through the mentor/mentee relationship. “The thing I enjoy about my conversations with Dr. Carroll is that we can have these dynamic discussions being at different positions in society,” they said. “Dr. Carroll has different experiences than I have, and that has influenced me a lot. I realize that it's possible to have these discussions even if we don't share social identities. We don't have the same experiences, but there's still so much that we can relate on. That’s inspiring to me, to have these discussions with people that aren't like you or aren't similar to you. I really cherish that with my mentor.”
Mentorship Offers Challenges and Rewards
Serving as a mentor and providing guidance to a mentee is not always easy — it requires patience, adaptability and a deep understanding of individual needs and aspirations. At the same time, mentorship allows for the cultivation of meaningful relationships, the sharing of knowledge and wisdom, and the opportunity to contribute to shaping the next generation of leaders and thinkers.
“It can be challenging as a mentor to help direct Erick on which direction to go, because Erick has the potential to succeed in so many different disciplines,” Carroll said. “And in grad school, you have to make tough choices about narrowing your focus. Erick is absorbing theoretical perspectives and methodological techniques from different disciplines at the same time, because Erick is engaged in this intersectional educational focus that combines gender studies and ethnic studies and sociology.
“What all three of those fields have in common is the analysis of power systems and thinking critically about the world around us,” she continued. “But what Erick is able to do is to take a theory from ethnic studies and then take a methodology from sociology and combine them in a way that sociologists don't often do but improves the conversation in sociology.”
Mentorship Extends Beyond Academic Guidance
Herrera credits Carroll's mentorship for providing not only academic guidance but also emotional support and preparation for the challenges of conducting research in underrepresented fields such as queer scholarship. Through their discussions, Herrera feels encouraged to navigate these complexities with confidence.
“Queer scholarship is a very small sector within the field of sociology,” Herrera said. “There are sometimes very rigid understandings of what queerness or ethnic studies are. Professor Carroll made sure to talk to me about the potential resistance my work might face. We’ve had conversations about my capacity to endure that and how to prepare myself for it.”
Herrera emphasized that Carroll’s mentorship goes beyond academic performance. “She guides me from her own experience in academia and wants me to know how I can guide myself,” they said. “She checks in on me as a person, asking questions like, ‘Can I endure the emotional labor that may come with this work?’ or ‘Am I prepared to handle these challenges?’”
Carroll’s approach has created a space where Herrera feels supported in their development as a researcher. “She actually takes the time to ask me about certain things, to listen, and to keep that space open for me to explore,” Herrera said. “She wants to help cultivate me as a researcher.”