The importance of mentoring
Part of my job in teaching is the actual classroom stuff. But for many of us, that is only a part of our interaction with students. Mentoring is something we may have experienced through our career, but rarely are we formally trained in it.
When SREB (Southern Regional Education Board) asked me to write a guest post (link) on mentoring, I was honored. I was an SREB Doctoral Scholar many years ago at the University of Tennessee. SREB keeps in touch with its doctoral scholars, and we like to give back to the SREB community. Doctoral scholars are always invited to return as alumni to the Institute on Teaching and Mentoring (link). If you don't know it, you should. Particularly if you are looking to support URM future faculty or recruit and support a diverse faculty.
So how was I mentored? What mentoring experiences were important to me? And how does that inform how I am as a mentor? Read my responses and more here: link.