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Programming Innovation for Youth-serving Organizations​

“Mentorship networks: What they are, what they are good for, and how they are built.” by Ignacio D. Acevedo-Polakovich, PhD, MSU Community-AID Laboratory Lead

2/15/2019

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Mentorship is a term that researchers and practitioners often use when discussing their professional development. It refers to a formative relationship between a mentee (i.e., a person who is ilearning) and a mentor (i.e., a person who teaches). In this blog, I would like to present you with the idea that developing a network of mentors is much better for your professional development than relying on a single mentor.
Why have mentors?
1. Perhaps the foremost reason to have a network of mentors is that no one mentor is likely to be an expert on every single thing that there is to know about your professional development. Having multiple mentors raises the probability that you can access guidance from a knowledgeable person.
  • For example, in my own career I’ve relied on relatively recent job applicants for practical guidance on job searching and on more experienced faculty members for guidance on avoiding common mistakes that job applicants make. Having access to both groups of mentors allows for a more complete picture of the job search process, and ultimately a more successful search. The same principle applies to most domains of professional development in both research and practice.

2.  Another reason to develop multiple mentors is that your relationships with each of them will naturally wax and wane repeatedly over time. Having multiple mentors raises the possibility of accessing someone who is ideally motivated to support you exactly at the time you need it.
  • The most poignant example from my own career came when a mentor that I most often rely on for advice on publishing and writing faced an unfortunate series of health and family problems. Demanding her time and resources under those conditions would have been selfish and indelicate of me. Having other mentors to rely on allowed me to receive the guidance that I needed in order to continue meeting my professional demands, and freed my time so that I could  honor and support my mentor through difficult times.

3. Having multiple mentors fosters freedom and independence. I run into colleagues whose reliance on one or only a few mentors has limited their professional choices (e.g., “I wish I could apply for that job, but I don’t know anyone in that system” or “I can’t publish this, it goes directly against what X has been saying for years.”). I’ve had only a few experiences where I have felt as they do. It is unpleasant to feel that after all the work you’ve put into experiencing success in your field, your growth is inordinately affected by the whims of a person who you have little influence upon.
  • Whenever I’ve discovered that my professional environments make success contingent on unfailing alliance to one particular person or set of ideas, I have immediately begun looking elsewhere (a decision most always supported by the mentors in my network).

4. This brings me to a final benefit of mentorship networks–support. Because you are human, you will make mistakes regarding your professional development. When this happens, it is wonderful to have available to you a number of mentors outside of your immediate professional context that can help you navigate back to a sound professional course.
  • In the midst of my worst professional decisions, it has been my mentors who have helped me plot the course out of those decisions, and whose support has led me to believe a successful resolution is possible.

I’m sold, how do I build a mentorship network?
Before discussing specific tactics, I ask you to consider that it is difficult, if not impossible, to be mentored without being humble. Mentors are willing to provide something that you do not have (e.g., knowledge, a skill, experience, a professional contact, etc.) in exchange for the satisfaction of seeing you avoid a pitfall that they encountered or watching you develop. Demanding and entitled attitudes on the part of mentees (often soon to be “former mentees”) are unlikely to foster mentors’ willingness to continue to assist you. Humility, appreciativeness, and graciousness seem to best honor the benefits received from your mentors.

As for where to begin, I think that it is best to begin building mentors within your natural environment. Among graduate students, perhaps the most natural mentors are faculty and other students. For lack of humility, I’ve seen students ignore incredibly helpful information provided to them by their peers. For lack of appreciation, I’ve seen these peers (and faculty) stop sharing helpful information with “could have been mentees.” The medieval philosopher Dominic of Guzman is said to have written
“appreciate all wisdom you encounter, irrespective of its source.” That is an incredibly productive attitude if you are looking to develop mentors. I’ve received incredible advice from people that I’ve not expected it from, often ones who I am not personally drawn to. Making sure to note the appreciation that I have for their wisdom (e.g., through written or verbal comments) has ensured more wisdom in the future.


A second natural place to seek mentors is through programs and structures developed specifically for this purpose. Many educational institutions, programs, and professional societies have formal mentoring or professional development programs. If you find one that works for you, you’ve found a rare commodity that you should not undervalue.


Professional societies provide one final place to identify potential mentors and develop mentors. The more you interact with people who share your interests, the more you are likely to find some among them who are willing to guide you. When you find these people, honor and appreciate them. I’ve met some of my most valued mentors and mentees (some of whom in turn have mentored me in specific domains) sitting in the audience of a professional presentation or over lunch at a workshop.

Some final observations

Here are some things that I’ve learned on the road to developing and maintaining my own mentorship networks.
1.  I repeat, and will repeat it again and again, humility and appreciation go a long way. If a person is helpful to you, let them know it. A doctoral student recently came into my office frustrated that I had stopped giving her direction as I did before. Her frustration was surprising to me as I had scaled down my advice based on the lack of feedback from her about it. It is my job to teach all students at my institution. It is my pleasure and privilege to be able to mentor some. I don’t want to impose, so I am unlikely to mentor people who fail to provide me a sense that my mentorship is valued.
2. Initiative can work miracles. I once wondered out loud why a friend of mine got advice from one of our mentors that I –despite having more contact with this mentor- did not get. Her answer: I ask. Lesson learned, I now ask. I don’t always get an answer (or the answer I want), but –unsurprisingly- the net amount of times that I do get an answer has increased exponentially.
3. Not everyone can mentor you. There are several people that I respect and admire who I’ve hoped to develop mentorship relationships with, but these have never materialized. While the reasons for this may be varied (e.g., lack of time, lack of personal compatibility. etc.), one thing I’ve learned is not to take it personally. Sometimes the inability to form a mentorship relationship has stemmed from an identifiable reason that helps me grow, others it has not. In either case, it is good self-care to learn as much as you can from that event and then move on with your life and professional development.
  • In my own life, I often refer students and  colleagues who seek advice or consultation from me to someone else. It is not because I do not like or value these people. Much to the contrary, it is because I value them that I refer them to someone who can serve them better than I can at the time.
4. The way you make mentors will likely match your personality. I have a colleague (that is at times a mentor to me) who has the enviable ability to walk up to seemingly anyone and enlist their help. Although I am sure that the process is at times effortful for her, observed from the outside it seems graceful and uncomplicated. As much as I’ve tried to develop that skill and will continue to work at it, it is still something that does not come naturally to me. However, for reasons I don’t fully understand I seem to do well at contributing effectively to committees, workforces, and other such groups. It is within these groups that I have forged many of my mentoring relationships. I have colleagues who develop mentoring networks through social engagements at conferences such as informal lunches, tours, etc.
  • While it is wise for everyone to take advantage of as many opportunities to develop mentoring relationships as they are afforded, not everyone will excel at the same types of opportunities. Find your strength and build from it.

Author’s note: A first version of this blog entry was written Ignacio Acevedo, PhD, about ten years ago. At that time, it was featured in the
Multicultural Mentoring blog by the Society of Clinical Psychology’s Section on the Clinical Psychology of Ethnic Minorities. (APA Division 12, Section 6). In 2014, a lightly copyedited version was reposted on the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students’ gradPSYCH Blog. Ignacio has significantly copyedited the original version for this current post.


Picture
Among graduate students, perhaps the most natural mentors are faculty and other students.
(Several Community-AID team members at a recent conference. From left to right; Erica Nordquist, Lauren Vollinger, Lucas Al-Zoughbi, Audrey Von-Maszewski, Ignacio Acevedo, and Meg Normand).

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"A bird touched by humans" by Malu Castro

2/6/2019

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Thinking on what I should write for this blog, I was confronted by the realization that I firmly believe that this place (read: the academy, MSU, Lansing, the U.S.) was not and cannot be made for me. The novelty of that realization was not from the thought (because I have definitely thought it before), but instead from the recognition that I didn’t know how to explain to others how to survive here. Instead, I will (re)tell the story that taught me how to recognize others like me and the paths we (re)tread. It is a story that was woven for me from bodies and histories by an elder of mine when we first met. We were flying back from a research conference, I, the last person on the plane, him, thankful for how small the last person on the plane was. It’s a story about a bird. For most it will always be a story about a bird, but the others will know. That’s a win-win to me.

*****

Imagine you are a bird, but not a bald eagle. Anything, but a fucking bald eagle unless you are from their place and you know what’s up. So, you might be a nene down by the coffee  roasters in Kaunakakai or perhaps you are an iquaca taking the day off with the family on Gilligan's Island. You are just minding your own business eating, breathing, pooping, and fucking when a human grabs you. You’ve heard stories about them. You know they have vivisected more than a few of your kin for being too much predator and not enough prey.

But these ones just grab a few of you and ask you to mimic their voices. From behind their clipboards they watch you intently as they play the song “This Land is your Land” on repeat. Each one listening to see if one your hoots or whistles matches Woody Guthrie’s voice. A few of you start tapping your talons to the rhythm guitar and eventually one or two of you even sing along. Not wanting to be upstaged, or left out, you join in on the fun. As time goes on the humans start to choose their favorites and identify the birds that sound most like a human. In that selection process, they take the ones who aren’t doing as well away and come back with full bellies.


Now you are worried. You know that you have to keep getting better at mimicking that boy “from” Oklahoma. You don’t know if you will live, but you aren’t ready to die yet. So, you sing and sing and sing until one day it is just you left. The humans cheer and congratulate you on your achievement. They show you a paper with the title, “The Utility of American Folk Music in Producing Human Like Vocalizations among Avians.” They pat you on the back and whisk you away back to your [INSERT ISLAND, FOREST, DESERT, TUNDRA, HOME].

​Stepping onto the land, the songs of your birdkin flood the cavern in your mind left from your captivity. Imagine the weight of freedom for something light enough to fly. Fearfully, you make your way toward their nests, unsure if all that song and dance you learned robbed you of your birthrights. With nothing to go back to and everything ahead of you, you leap…


...thank the ancestors that you didn’t forget how to sing or fly.
   
 
Up in the air, you make your way to your birdkin, but before you can get close they call out to you in their/your song, “Who goes there?” You respond in song and exclaim the new tricks you learned among those who can’t fly. Some singular voices inquire about your time away, if you’re alright, and what you learned, but  the song of the flock is too loud as it proclaims, “You smell like human!” You try to retort in your tongue and explain that you now know the tongue of your kidnappers, but the flock does not recognize you. You spent too much time in cages eating pellets and being touched by human hands. You carry the smell of the kidnapper with you.

  
Alone once again, you try to call out to your family, friends, and lovers, but none come to sit by you on the branch that you first flew from. You grow older and spend your time on the outside of the flock, ever vigilant of when they might see you as an intruder. Throughout the years you watch as humans come back more frequently and take more and more of your kin. The flock grows thin and anxiety permeates the song of your people. Eventually, other birds are returned and  are excluded. Knowing their loneliness, you come by and gather them up after they are left behind by the flock. You will share with them how the song of the humans is not a gift, a boon, or a tool. It is a weapon. It is a reminder of what they want and a warning of what they will do.

  
This small conclave of yours grows, and as it grows, you speak of the horrors you have seen among the humans. Things so horrible there aren’t words for it in birdsong so you can only speak of them through the voice of Woody Guthrie. So profuse are the horrors of humanity, that you start frantically singing it in their presence. In time, the flock starts to pay attention to the minority singing, “This Land is your Land” whenever humans are around. The flock doesn’t trust you, but they know to run when you  start singing. With time, the song of the flock (still punctuated with anxiety) proclaims, “Work on being smelly.”


Now, your task, along with the rest of the human smelling birds, is to relearn how to smell like a bird. It’s not like riding a bike. It’s more like performing a mating dance, killing your food, and enjoying the smell of bird musk/filth. These are things that can be taught and learned, but there are no lyrics to them. You just have to trust (and listen to) your feathers, blood, and body. Being in one’s scent isn’t about being identified as part of the flock, but about showing that you are willing to be in the muck of it -  that you have skin in the game. You will probably fail to smell like you once did, but that’s okay because now you know how hard it is to be smelly. Either way, you are just a bird and this story isn’t an analogy.

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