Finding a Mentor

One of the great benefits to attending a school of Wake Forest’s size and scope is that your students will have the opportunity to connect with a mentor here, if they will take advantage of it.

Sometimes a mentor comes in the form of an academic adviser, Faculty Fellow from their residential community, or it could be a favorite faculty member, campus minister, or other staff member a student sees frequently. Other times it may be a trusted upperclassman friend, an RA, you get the idea.  The important part is that there are a lot of people here who are willing to be another set of ears for your students.

But mentoring, like everything else, is best done when it is intentional. There is a great site on our Mentoring Resource Center called Who Are Your People? that can help your Deac think through the idea of connecting with a mentor.

Our students – like most college students – sometimes wrestle with big questions: what should I major in? what kind of job do I want? how do I want to live my life? what’s important to me?  They are thinking these thoughts and discovering and wondering.  Often they will talk to their families about these questions, but sometimes they want a safe place to voice their questions and concerns and hopes and dreams. Part of the joy (and the responsibility) of working with college students is to be accessible to them when they want a kind ear. And I can vouch for so many of my colleagues who delight in helping students by listening, and encouraging, and questioning, and even challenging them sometimes.

There is no requirement to have a mentor, and much of the mentoring that is done on campus is organic and develops naturally (as opposed to signing up for a specific mentor program).  If your student has already found a trusted person here, fantastic. If not, you may want to begin thinking about how to initiate a mentoring conversation (whether at fall break, Thanksgiving break, winter break, etc.). You might want to talk about the role a mentor has played in your own life and encourage your student to seek out a mentor here – when they are ready.