Tag: mentoring strategies

Mentoring as Vocational Practice: Reflections on the NetVUE Regional Gathering at Presbyterian College

The NetVUE Regional Gathering at Presbyterian College emphasized the importance of mentorship in the context of experiential learning as a way to support students’ vocational exploration. Keynote speakers, Andy Chan and Terese Lund, encouraged participants to accompany students in discovering their purpose, asking good questions and providing space to sit with the uncertainty as part of their growth process. The gathering explored strategies for creating a supportive mentoring culture.

According to Terese Lund, “mentoring is the relational infrastructure for formation,” a definition she offered on the second day of the NetVUE Regional Gathering at Presbyterian College that took place September 24–26 in Clinton, South Carolina. The assistant vice president of Purposeful Pathways and professor of psychology at Wingate University, Lund drew on her experience as an administrator, faculty member, and mentor as she mapped out a few significant vocational frameworks for participants to consider. She then invited them to reflect on them as they explored the role of mentoring in experiential learning as a key part of vocational exploration and discernment for undergraduate students. As Lund argued, this process is one that students “should not have to do alone.”

The theme of this gathering was Vocational and Experiential Learning: The Call to Mentorship, which focused on this central question: “How does mentorship in experiential learning opportunities foster genuine vocational formation in students?”  Over the course of three days, participants examined the role that such opportunities play in student learning, sharing concrete practices that could deepen the mentoring culture on their own campuses—all with an emphasis on this work could shape students’ sense of purpose and calling.

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Mentoring for Vocation: Maria LaMonaca Wisdom

In a recent NetVUE podcast, Maria LaMonaca Wisdom discusses her role as assistant vice provost for faculty advancement at Duke University. She emphasizes the importance of mentoring in fostering growth and personal relationships, while highlighting the need for revision and change in vocational paths. Mentors illuminate potential and inspire hope in students.

Maria LaMonaca Wisdom

In the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, hosts Erin VanLaningham and John Barton interview Maria LaMonaca Wisdom, a leading voice on mentoring and coaching in higher education. Maria is the assistant vice provost for faculty advancement at Duke University, where she focuses on helping faculty flourish as researchers, educators, mentors, and leaders. In this role, she offers group coaching programs along with 1:1 coaching to faculty at critical transition points of their careers. She is also the author of How to Mentor Anyone in Academia, published recently by Princeton University Press, which offers methods and approaches to understand the mentor role. No stranger to undergraduate education, Maria is a former Lilly Fellow and holds a PhD in English; she taught literature for a decade at a small liberal arts college before pivoting to her work as an administrator.

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“Well begun is half done.”

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Professor Peter Frederick

It was Peter Frederick, retired historian and beloved teaching guru from Wabash College, who introduced me to the significance of the first day of class. His advice was straightforward, almost obvious, the way plain truths often are. And yet, as a new teacher, caught up in my own nervousness, concerned with the syllabus and making a good first impression, I had not fully appreciated how important it was to set a tone and allay student fears during that first meeting at the beginning of a new term.

On the first day, Peter reminds us, students are wondering about three things: the teacher (does the teacher care? are they fair? competent?); the course (is this course for me? will it be useful? relevant? appropriate?); and, finally, about their classmates (who are these other students in the class?). Peter further stresses the importance of getting into the course material on that very first day and has some good strategies for how to do that. Continue reading ““Well begun is half done.””