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L. Jackson Scholars Program >>
Mentor Guide |
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Mentor Guide
by Fran Kochan
Thank you for agreeing to serve as a mentor to a Barbara L. Jackson Scholar. These Scholars, who come from underrepresented groups in our field have been selected because of their potential to make significant contributions in the future. Your relationship with them will be instrumental in helping to ensure that they reach their goals and take their place in education in the years ahead.
The primary purpose of this mentoring relationship is to provide these scholars with a trusted colleague who can assist them to successfully navigate through the academic arena. Thus, your role is to share your knowledge and experiences and provide them with an entry into the broader network of scholars in our field. This guide was developed to provide some ideas on how to reach this goal.
- Successful mentoring relationships are built on trust so take some time to establish trust and build a relationship. You might
- Share something about your own journey in the academic arena
- Talk about any concerns they might have about being a mentee and being mentored
- Share any concerns you might have about fulfilling your role
- Talk about issues of confidentiality and assure the mentee of the importance of this factor in your relationship.
- Engage in effective listening strategies
- Listen for feelings
- Encourage reflection and self-exploration
- Be sensitive to body language
- Rephrase thoughts for clarification
- Ask the mentee what they are interested in working on in terms of enhancing their professional growth, knowledge, or skills. Help them to select one or two areas and develop a plan to achieve a goal related to them. Check with the mentee throughout your working relationship on how things are going related to these goals.
- Offer to connect the scholar with resources- human and other--and work toward networking the mentee whenever possible.
- Determine how often and how you will communicate (email, meeting at conferences, phone, etc)
- Assure the mentee that he or she can contact you and does not need to be hesitant about it, but set the parameters that make you comfortable.
- If appropriate, offer to conduct research, present with the mentee, or connect them to someone who might be interested in working with them.
- Touch on the three aspects of the professorship and try to help the mentee develop in those areas (teaching, research, service), by sharing your own experiences and expertise, by reviewing some of their work, or by responding to their questions).
- Take time periodically to discuss how well the relationship is going, how they are doing on achieving their goals, and whether they might want to add new goals as a part of your mentoring relationship.
- If you believe that your mentoring relationship is not working well or you are not a good match, discuss it openly and contact the UCEA office to arrange a change.
- Be sensitive to the advice that the mentee is getting from her or his university advisors or chair.
- Enjoy the experience!!
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