Here at the UIC BIRCWH program we are continually defining and revising the concept of mentorship. We utilize feedback from our scholars, mentors, and program development team in order to pinpoint our areas of success as well as areas for improvement. Mentorship is what defines our program- but what defines mentorship?
Our team of scholars and mentors recently revisited an article by Andrés Martin titled, “Ignition Sequence: On Mentorship,” which explores what mentorship is (and is not), and offers insights into how to improve modern-day mentoring. Martin describes what we have all experienced: a process that frequently takes place, but that is rarely articulated.
Why does mentorship commonly elude articulation? How can we best capture the experience of both mentoring and mentorship? Which matrices best measure effective mentoring? These are questions with undoubtedly complicated answers that we will continue to mull over, and we hope that by initiating a discussion with our colleagues we can better define the process of mentorship, and therefore improve mentoring on a larger scale.
The full article by Andrés Martin is available on the UIC BIRWCH website.
