Mentoring Matters

I’ve been reminded this week of a favorite survey outcome, periodically reported in Inside Higher Ed. Here’s a 2019 version:

Faculty mentors provide students exceptional educational benefits (opinion) (insidehighered.com)

This morning a faculty colleague dropped in for help finding student home addresses in MyPortal. Why? Because at the end of the semester, he sends a hand-written note to the highest performing students in his classes, encouraging the students in their academic careers.

On my way into work today, I was catching-up with a long-term repeat Schottland Mentor and class speaker. He updated me on a recent success of his mentee (Class of 2012). It is now ten-years post-graduation, and they still talk about every quarter.

I was on the patio at Basic Kitchen last week, and realized 3 different tables were occupied by CofC Faculty having semester-end lunch with students.

Our colleague Lancie Affonso (I’ll call him out by name) weekly sends us an update on an alumni success. I am not over-estimating how often he does it; we should give him his own column in The Pulse. He always has great news and shares it enthusiastically.

At the Annual Alumni Gala in 2021, Michael Shemtov (Class of 2000), gave a shout-out of gratitude to Barbara Green, retiring from the College of Charleston next week.

Your mentorship comes in all types of forms. It’s a note or taking students to lunch or serving as advisor on a Bachelor Essay. It is taking the time to tell a student why they earned a lower grade than they anticipated on a project. It is often pairing students with community mentors or making introductions for jobs and internships. It is taking the time to stay-in-touch.

It’s impossible to quantify the impact of your mentorship. These incidents aren’t typically captured in annual evaluations or even award nominations.

And still, it matters. It takes a team to do what we do in this building.

PS – Ignore the part in the article where it reports Business faculty are less likely to mentor. This didn’t capture data on our faculty, I say.