Organic Mentoring

We are experiencing a mentoring crisis today. One key reason is that too many women cling to an outdated formulaic idea of what mentoring is all about. When we hear the word "mentoring" we conjure up a picture that fit our experience decades ago. Then we look in the mirror and don't see an adequate mentor staring back at us. Our preconceived ideas about what today's young women want in a mentor convince us we are not qualified to be mentors--but we are wrong. What we don't realize is that younger women today are far more likely to want a relationship with that woman in the mirror than the conjured-up perfect mentor in our head. Organic Mentoringexplores foundational issues that explain why beloved but outdated mentoring methods are no longer effective. The book looks at the cultural changes and fast-paced digital advancements that shape young thought and behavior but weaken the link between generations. It walks through the new values, preferences, ideas, and problems of the next generation and how these issues impact mentoring. Then the authors guide the reader through landmines to avoid and approaches that work today.

Feminist Mentoring in Academia offers a varied collection of autoethnographic and research-based accounts of support, struggle, and resilience from the ivory tower. Contributors write about the moments in-between, where feminist mentoring initiates, renews, thrives, and sometimes struggles. The work presented in this book highlights how feminist mentoring happens between professor and student; junior faculty and tenured; and occurs repeatedly. Featuring contributions from scholars at varying points in their academic careers, the chapters of this book propose best feminist mentorship practices, disclose personal narratives, and critique traditional forms of mentoring with visions for feminist mentorship futures. Scholars of communication, feminist studies, higher education, and sociology will find this book of particular interest.

Youth mentoring programs must change in order to become truly effective. The world’s leading expert shows how. Youth mentoring is among the most popular forms of volunteering in the world. But does it work? Does mentoring actually help young people succeed? In Older and Wiser, mentoring expert Jean Rhodes draws on more than thirty years of empirical research to survey the state of the field. Her conclusion is sobering: there is little evidence that most programs—even renowned, trusted, and long-established ones—are effective. But there is also much reason for hope. Mentoring programs, Rhodes writes, do not focus on what young people need. Organizations typically prioritize building emotional bonds between mentors and mentees. But research makes clear that effective programs emphasize the development of specific social, emotional, and intellectual skills. Most mentoring programs are poorly suited to this effort because they rely overwhelmingly on volunteers, who rarely have the training necessary to teach these skills to young people. Moreover, the one-size-fits-all models of major mentoring organizations struggle to deal with the diverse backgrounds of mentees, the psychological effects of poverty on children, and increasingly hard limits to upward mobility in an unequal world. Rhodes doesn’t think we should give up on mentoring—far from it. She shows that evidence-based approaches can in fact create meaningful change in young people’s lives. She also recommends encouraging “organic” mentorship opportunities—in schools, youth sports leagues, and community organizations.

Realize the value and blessings of participating in mentoring relationships during all stages, ages, and seasons of life. Women often don’t think they know enough to be a mentor, or fear rejection if they ask someone to mentor them. Others don’t think they need mentoring. However, throughout the Bible, God calls spiritually younger and older women to learn from and teach one another. Mentoring for All Seasons helps answer questions like these: •What is mentoring? •How do I find a mentor? •Why does God want us to mentor one another? •What are the blessings of mentoring? Through true stories from mentors and mentees in life seasons from tween through death—along with the author’s personal experiences, helpful tips, Scriptures to study together, and biblical mentoring relationship examples—Mentoring for All Seasons encourages women to be intentional about sharing their life experiences and God’s faithfulness with other women.

With Millennial and Generation Z women coming of age in our churches and society, new approaches to women's ministry are required to meet their distinct needs. Drawing on decades of experience ministering to women, authors Sue Edwards and Kelley Mathews explain how their Transformation Model can energize women's ministry for all generations and in multiple settings. Individual chapters are devoted to applying the Model, which is centered on Scripture and building relationships, to ministry in the local church, the college campus, and cross-culturally in missions. Organic Ministry to Women is packed with practical advice and real-life illustrations of how to implement the principles of the Transformation Model. Edwards and Mathews also profile numerous leading women's ministers like Jen Wilkin, Priscilla Shirer, and Jackie Hill-Perry, drawing wisdom and inspiration from their lives and ministries. Helpful appendixes provide additional resources including sample job descriptions for ministry leaders, a Bible study lesson, and a training guide for small group leaders. A revised and expanded version of New Doors in Ministry to Women, this updated edition takes into account the latest cultural and ministry trends and is an invaluable resource for current and future leaders in ministry to women.

Mentorship is a catalyst capable of unleashing one's potential for discovery, curiosity, and participation in STEMM and subsequently improving the training environment in which that STEMM potential is fostered. Mentoring relationships provide developmental spaces in which students' STEMM skills are honed and pathways into STEMM fields can be discovered. Because mentorship can be so influential in shaping the future STEMM workforce, its occurrence should not be left to chance or idiosyncratic implementation. There is a gap between what we know about effective mentoring and how it is practiced in higher education. The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM studies mentoring programs and practices at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It explores the importance of mentorship, the science of mentoring relationships, mentorship of underrepresented students in STEMM, mentorship structures and behaviors, and institutional cultures that support mentorship. This report and its complementary interactive guide present insights on effective programs and practices that can be adopted and adapted by institutions, departments, and individual faculty members.

This book is a compilation of very personal approaches to mentoring and sponsoring, breaking the stereotypes of seniority, age or experience. The authors have provided a platform to understand that mentoring and especially sponsoring are in fact a win-win relation, in which both sides, mentors and mentees; and sponsors and sponsored individuals learn from each other, enhancing their career paths. How they managed to create a growth space for themselves and their teams through mentoring and sponsoring, is a story of professional leadership. They shared a privileged outlook to understand the root causes of barriers, as well as to envision plausible solutions for difficult career crossroads, in which mentorship or sponsoring was key to steer step changes. The authors propose not only their vision, but a remarkable collection of unfiltered interviews with young and renown professionals in many sectors, from photography to music, research, sports, energy, and more, completing a vision of what is key for both sides of the equation pertinent to mentoring and sponsoring: the givers and the receivers. They explain what is needed to gain the most out of the mentoring and sponsoring loops, with their own career stories. Success is supported by many factors, in which the most important are the technical competency and performance aligned with resilience. However, in the long path of a career, mentors and particularly sponsors play a foundational and frequently a changing-life role, improving our perspective or triggering reflections and actions that benefitted our journeys at work and in life. This book provides insights on what works for an effective mentoring and sponsoring process. It is useful for all professionals, especially those starting their career journeys.

This title is an IGI Global Core Reference for 2019 as it provides solution-oriented approaches to confronting, confirming, and mitigating perpetual disparities within the educational system. Containing research from researchers across the U.S., this publication covers comprehensive research on access to education, racial battle fatigue, and mentoring programs. Overcoming Challenges and Creating Opportunity for African American Male Students is an essential reference source that supports the development of more widespread solution-oriented approaches to confronting, confirming, and mitigating any perpetual disparities that may exist among these students. Featuring research on topics such as access to education, racial battle fatigue, and mentoring programs, this book is ideally designed for administrators, policymakers, educators, scholars, researchers, students, and academicians seeking coverage on the many factors that influence African American male success in various educational contexts.