Lifting As We Climb: Being a Mentor at Your Institution

Successful professionals can point to mentors who helped affirm, encourage, and develop them along the way. Serving as a mentor is an important part of our development as professionals, and an obligation we all share to our students and our field. This briefing will describe successful mentoring relationships and the benefits of mentorship to the mentor and mentee, provide suggestions for successful mentoring relationships, and allow participants to share their experiences (both successes and challenges) as mentors.

This presentation is targeted to entry and mid-level professionals (up to 10 years of experience in student affairs).

Learning Outcomes

By participating in this session, attendees will: 

• understand the benefits mentoring relationships have on both mentor and mentee;
• recognize characteristics of a positive mentoring relationship; and
• develop strategies for initiating and developing mentoring relationships.