Liberal Arts Academic Mentoring

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Liberal Arts Academic Mentoring

• Expanding
• your
• Frontiers

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What is Mentoring?

• A mentorship typically involves an older expert
  working with a younger talented individual in an
  area of mutual interest.

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The Academic Mentoring Experience

• High school students are often engaged at least
  one year, particularly in mentorships with a
  strong academic focus.
• The classical expectation was that the mentor
  would help a neophyte grow and develop in
  intellectual and skill areas.

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Why Academic Mentoring?

• Career Exploration and Development
• Development of Potential
• Psychosocial Advancement
• Connections with a Larger World
• Shared Rewards
• Community and School Collaborations
• Meeting Exceptional Ability Needs

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Interlocking Roles of the Mentor

• Teacher
• Expert
• Guide
• Advisor
• Friend
• Role Model

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• The mentor has another function and this is
  developmentally the most crucial to support and
  facilitate the realization of the Dream.

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Characteristics of the Mentee

• Exceptional ability and potential to excel in a
  field
• Abiding interest and enthusiasm for an area of
  study
• Perseverance-Commitment
• A willingness to commit time and energy to study
  and exploration
• Readiness

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The Mentoring Relationship

• Mutual passion for a specific area of interest
• A match of teaching and learning styles
• Trust
• Mutual equality in relationship
• Sharing of lifestyle as novice adopts patterns of
  engineer, artist, or other professional

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Mentorship Goals

• The development of cognitive capabilities
• The development of affective characteristics
• The development of physical and psychological
  skills.

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Mentorship Exemplars

• Highest to Lowest Critical Thinking Skills
• Studying higher level mathematics applications
• Exploring a Science Concept in the Lab
• Working with emotionally disabled children
• Guiding an art student to a higher development
  level
• A gymnast developing more difficult moves
• Mentee working in animal surgery

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2004-2005 Mentoring Projects

• Sports Mouth Guards
• Gods Pantry Fundraiser
• Pakistan Inter-service Intelligence, Intern and
  Research Paper
• WRFL, Radio and Media, Music Media
• Teen Insert for Lexington Herald Leader
• Symmetric Multiprocessing
• Forum Facilitation
• Design Data Base Computer System for Sports

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Structuring a Mentorship

• Phase I---The Preparation
• Junior Spring Semester and Summer
• Phase II---The Mentorship
• July to April of Senior Year
• Phase III---The Culmination
• Juried Presentation on May of Senior Year

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Phase I---Preparation

• 1. Identify the Students Needs and Ideas
• 2. Compile a list of the Students existing
  Accomplishments
• 3. Brainstorm Activities and Resources with the
  Student
• 4. Arrange for Mentee to meet with Experts in
  their Workplace
• 5. Arrange the mentorship and Provide Orientation

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Phase II---The Mentorship

• 6. Determine the conceptual contract and work
  plan (timeline)
• 7. Arrange for Systematic Feedback (timesheets,
  conferences)
• 8. Allow Mentoring to Take Its Course

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Phase III---The Culmination

• 9. Realize a final Product
• 10. Evaluate the mentorship

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Realize your DreamsExplore your PassionsThink
Outside of the BoxApply Your KnowledgeRelevance
RelationshipsRigorous