Mentorship

Mentorship may be defined as a personal relationship in which a more experienced and knowledgeable person (the mentor) helps a less experienced person (the mentee) benefit from their experience and knowledge.

Within our the FoMD a mentor is a faculty member with useful experience, knowledge, skills and wisdom who offers advice, information, guidance, support and opportunity to a more junior faculty member, thereby assisting their professional development. In a more global sense, mentorship helps junior faculty to adopt our shared academic values, manage an academic career, and establish and maintain a productive network of colleagues.

Objective

Guide junior faculty members in their professional development and help them achieve satisfaction and success in their career. 

Encourage mentorship weaving in the professional development of faculty members including development of research programs, teaching skills and, if on tenure track, to obtain tenure and promotion.

Although mentorship implies a considerable commitment, mentoring more junior faculty members through their first few years of academic life can be extraordinarily satisfying, stimulating and rewarding.

Principles of mentorship

  1. One mentor cannot serve all mentoring needs.  
  2. Mentoring needs may change over time.
  3. Multiple mentors may be needed.

Other Products and Processes

Mentorship workshops

Mentorship may be defined as a personal relationship in which a more experienced and knowledgeable person (the mentor) helps a less experienced person (the mentee) benefit from their experience and knowledge. Within our the FoMD a mentor is a faculty member with useful experience, knowledge, skills and wisdom who offers advice, information, guidance, support and opportunity to a more junior faculty member, thereby assisting their professional development. In a more global sense, mentorship helps junior faculty to adopt our shared academic values, manage an academic career, and establish and maintain a productive network of colleagues.

The goal of our Faculty is to insure that all incoming Assistant Professors, Associate Professors without tenure and faculty service officers (FSO) have a mentor within the FoMD, aiming at building a cadre of excellent mentors to serve the diverse needs of our faculty. The FOMD Mentorship Program provides resources and training to enable this.

This workshop is available along with a workshop kit and complementary mentorship manual. This 90 minute workshop uses interaction and simulations of meetings between mentors and mentees to explore the purpose, and practical issues, pearls, and pitfalls associated with the mentoring process.

If you are a Chair, divisional director or administrative assistant interested in holding one of these workshops for your departmental members please contact:

Dr. Manjula Gowrishankar
FOMD Mentorship program director
Email: manjula@ualberta.ca