Developing Talent through Mentorship
Case Study:
Professional Mentorship Roles
I’ve benefited from incredible mentors throughout my own career, so it’s important to me that I pay it forward with my own mentoring work.
Currently, I serve as a volunteer mentor at an organization called Minds Matter Twin Cities. I have worked each weekend for the past three years with a high school student in preparing her for college and life after. Minds Matter students are incredibly dedicated, talented young people from under-resourced families, and many will be the first in their family to attend college. I believe each one of them will make a great difference in my community and communities across the country in a few years.
I also supervise two undergraduate science communications interns full-time this summer, and I’m proud of the great work both have produced in such short time. I recruited both to an agricultural school posting from my Master’s degree alma mater, the English Department at the University of Minnesota. I believe collaborators from other disciplines bring fresh and exciting ideas to the table, and so far this has held true.
My approach to mentoring has always been to encourage developing talent to take new risks towards growth, to ask questions freely without fearing judgment, to discuss fresh ideas and to have a change to be seen and heard.
I believe this works. The proof is in course feedback from when I served as instructor in creative writing at the University of Minnesota (Fall 2015). I taught classes of around 25 students, usually the smallest class size my students had at the University and therefore a rare chance to contribute as an individual.