Mentoring: Professional Development in Classics
Would you like to be paired with a mentor — someone at a different school, who's a little ahead of you in her or his career, from whom you could get advice and support as you make your way through the labyrinth of grad school, job market, publishing, tenure, and promotion? (This is not just for grad students, but for people at any stage of their careers.)
Would you like to be a mentor to another scholar?
THE MENTORING INITIATIVE IS ALIVE AND WELL!
If you fit either of these categories, the WCC mentoring initiative was created for you. About 40 members have already volunteered to be mentors, and about 20 mentoring pairs have been set up. The procedure is this: when someone contacts us asking to be paired with a mentor, we ask for her or his research specialization and any special issues (s)he would like to discuss with a mentor (such as going on the job market or combining career and family). We then look through the list of volunteers, trying to find a good "match." If there is no one in the same field who is still unmatched, we may approach someone we know to see if (s)he is interested in mentoring. We approach the prospective mentor first and make sure (s)he is available, so the prospective "mentee" does not need to worry about the possibility of being rebuffed. We send both parties an introductory message and some general guidelines for the mentoring relationship, proposed by former grad student members of the Steering Committee. Then we will try to be in touch with everyone once in a while, to see how things are going and to re-match people if they so desire.
At any time, we would welcome feedback on how the initiative is working and on ways to improve it. Some people in mid-career might like to have a mentor and to be a mentor at the same time—that's fine. If you would like to be a mentor, please don't hesitate to volunteer (and don't be discouraged if you have volunteered but haven't yet been matched). Although the number of volunteers thus far exceeds the number of prospective "mentees," we are sometimes at a loss to match people in specific fields. And if more people apply after seeing this announcement, we'll need more mentors too!
Please contact either of the following:
Lillian Doherty
Associate Professor of Classics, University of Maryland
can be reached at ldoherty@umd.edu [the L is lowercase, by the way]
301-405-2022 (school)
301-622-9730 (home)
Lauren Caldwell
Assistant Professor of Classical Studies
Wesleyan University
lcaldwell@wesleyan.edu
860-685-2082 (school)
We look forward to hearing from many of you!
Sincerely, Lillian Doherty and Lauren Caldwell