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Defining Mentorship

What Is Mentorship?

Please review the following video, to learn all about what a mentorship is.

I’d like you to take a moment and think about someone who has been a mentor to you. How did you know this person? What was the nature of your relationship? What is most memorable about your experience? Based on your experience, and that of Lisa, Shawn, and Megan in the video, how would you define mentorship? Please review the following video, to hear some personal reflections about mentorship.

From our experiences, you may be starting to see some commonalities about what constitutes mentorship. While definitions of mentoring vary across studies and programs, there are four points of consensus about the characteristics of a mentoring relationship (Crisp & Cruz, 2009; Jacobi, 1991).

  1. The first characteristic is that mentoring relationships are focused on the growth and development of mentees. As Allison and Megan describe, mentors are looking out for someone else’s interests, giving them a hand or helping them navigate a new situation.
  2. The second characteristic is that, relative to their mentees, mentors have “more” of something. This does not necessarily mean the mentor is in a position of higher authority. In fact, peer mentorship often occurs between someone who has lived through a specific experience, and someone who is new to that experience.
  3. The third characteristic is that mentoring experiences include broad forms of support. Many people think of mentorship as providing professional or career support, but, as you’ve already heard described in the videos, mentors also often provide some form of emotional or psychological support at some point in a mentoring relationship. If you’ve ever mentored undergraduate students, you’ve likely been approached by your mentees feeling stressed or overwhelmed. Helping your mentees navigate through this situation is one way of providing emotional support.
  4. The final characteristic is that mentoring relationships are personal and reciprocal. Both mentors and mentees have responsibility in the relationship and both are aware of and interested in pursuing a mentorship relationship. As Shawn and Lisa describe in the video, the relationship is bi-directional. While the mentoring relationship is focused on the growth and development of mentees, mentors also benefit from the experience.

Collectively, these characteristics distinguish mentoring from other developmental relationships in academia, like academic supervision. Ultimately, as a mentor, you’re invested in your mentee’s positive outcomes, demonstrating emotional commitment beyond the communication of degree or other academic requirements, care about your mentee’s professional and personal development, and advocacy on his or her behalf.

Activity

Lets review the information in this section through an activity. Try to match the four characteristics of mentorship with the appropriate term that can be used to describe a mentor.