Without the faculty mentorship program I would not have been successful completing the RTP process because my program didn’t provide me the support I needed being a woman of color.
Faculty Mentoring Program Survey, 2017
Perhaps when we hear the word mentor we imagine someone older, more experienced than us who is highly caring and supportive, of infinite wisdom, and who will guide and protect us as we find and walk our professional path. Increasingly, scholars of mentoring and faculty development are recognizing that this guru model of mentoring is not as effective as we would like to believe. For the faculty needing the mentoring, getting advice and know-how from one person only works if that person knows everything and is never wrong. And, for the faculty doing the mentoring, the guru model requires intensive time and energy over the course of years, maybe decades. Faculty are not omniscient, and even the most well-meaning of us cannot attend to another person’s every professional need for years on end.
That’s why this website–and CI’s Mentoring Program for New(ish) Faculty–is built on a network model of mentoring. A network model of mentoring asks faculty to reflect on what they want and need and then seek out connections to help them achieve these things–in other words, to identify and cultivate an individualized team of people who can help them realize their professional goals.
To learn more about the network model of mentoring and to start building one of your own, visit The Mentoring Network page.
You don’t get all your health needs met by one doctor; we have a team of healthcare professionals to take care of us. So doesn’t it make sense to have a team of people looking out for us professionally as well?
