1. Mentorship: A Success Key for Graduate Students PACES Graduate Boot Camp Saturday, Sept 12 th, 2015

2. By the end of this session you will understand…  The importance of mentorship for your graduate program success  The characteristics and qualities that make for a good mentor  What qualities you possess/need as a mentee  Your goals for graduate education  The importance and role of your values and beliefs  The issues that may affect the mentor/mentee relationship  How to select the right mentor for you  What the issues are for you as a mentee  How to make mentorship work well for you

3. What does it take to be successful as a graduate student?  Motivation  Perseverance  Love of learning  Good time management  Leading a balanced life  Financial support  Emotional & intellectual support  Encouragement  Valuable, useful feedback  Resilience  Others?

4. How do you access most of these?  Family and friends  Other students  Faculty  Other professionals  Within yourself  How about mentors?  Can any or all of these be mentors for you?

5. Mentorship – what is it?  Homer’s Iliad & Odyssey (Mentor was Odysseus’ trusted friend and advisor)  What is a mentor?  One who is committed to help others achieve:  A better understanding of themselves, their place in the world, and their search for meaningful living  How does that differ from a “coach” or “advisor?”  A coach is someone who helps us acquire skills  An advisor is someone who may provide sound guidance but may remain removed or aloof from the individual  Mentorship is a role that is more ‘a calling’ than part of one’s job description

6. Characteristics of a Mentor  Respect  For a student’s uniqueness as well as capacity and preferred mode of learning  A mentor never compromises the student’s dignity  Commitment  To excellence in process and outcome  Demanding  Have quality standards; push students to their potential  Availability  Within reason, at the disposal of their students  Students feel welcome to appts; boundaries set clearly

7. Characteristics of a Mentor  Encouraging  Motivator through behavior, optimistic outlook, provides explicit encouragement  Ethical  Mentor is a role model for students; behavior is beyond ethical reproach  Trust occurs when students are secure in belief that they will be treated with dignity  Philosophical  Have ‘big picture’ in mind when counseling  Openness  Open to discovery, new ways of thinking, to new possibilities

8. What about characteristics of the Mentee?  Respectful  Cardinal virtue of any relationship is to respect the other’s dignity  If not present relationships deteriorate into mutual use and abuse  Committed  To course of study and an academic standard of excellence that exceeds the ordinary  Passionate  Need to have “fire in the belly”; stubbornness not to succumb to challenges  Philosophical openness to discovery  Needs to take chances; be open to challenges to perspectives

9. What about characteristics of the Mentee?  Ethical  Conduct themselves with utmost concern for ethical scholarship & honest interaction with mentor(s)  Is it surprising that the characteristics are nearly the same for both the mentor and mentee?  Both parties are part of the same relationship  Both parties should be ‘on the same page’  Both parties mutually benefit from the relationship

10. What is the purpose of graduate education?  Succeed in completing the degree?  To receive as much funding as possible?  To publish results?  To develop the mentee and mentor to a higher state of cognitive awareness?  To facilitate an environment in which the mentor and mentee can flourish?  The ultimate goal…  To flourish as individuals – better thinkers, better decision- makers, better writers, better professors… better people.