The Perks of Becoming a Mentor/Mentee

The following post was written by Jonathan May, NACADA Region 2 Mentor Program Coordinator and Associate Director, Center for Academic Advising, Retention, and Transitions at George Mason University.

If you registered for the NACADA Region 2 Conference by the early registration deadline, you are now eligible to take part in the NACADA Region 2 Mentor Program.

Each year over two dozen academic advisors take part in this program. This is a program that requires very little effort for the invaluable experience you will receive in return. Whether you would like to apply as a mentor or a mentee, you will feel the rewards of this program.

What is the commitment? What you decide to put into this program is what will determine the amount of time involved. Each mentor/mentee pairing is highly encouraged to connect as frequently as possible. As program coordinator, I will on occasion check in to see how your relationships are developing. I will also connect you to some of the latest research being discussed within higher education as a way to continue to foster the discussions that will take place between mentors and mentees.

As a mentee, you have the opportunity to turn to your mentor to discuss challenges you may be experiencing in the workplace, or receive help in developing a plan that will lead to reaching long term professional goals.

Each individual interested in this program needs to think about where they are in their profession as a way to determine if you are someone with a myriad of experience who would like to give back to this organization by serving as a mentor, or if you are new or transitioning within the field of academic advising and know you could benefit from the support of a mentor by applying to be a mentee.

I would also like to mention that we always tend to receive more mentee applications than mentor applications, so I am putting out a big push to strongly encourage more and more of you to apply to be a mentor. I know we have a lot of seasoned advisors out there that can provide amazing support to those of us who are new to academic advising.

On Sunday, March 5, all conference registrants received a link to the Mentor Program application. It was sent to the email address you provided as part of your conference registration. If you have any questions, please email me at Jmay3@gmu.edu and include “NACADA mentor program” in the subject line.

Jonathan May
NACADA Region 2 Mentor Program Coordinator