In this our final Mentoring Monday of the semester, we collaborated with the Hispanic Latino Employee Association (HLEA), Dr. Alan Meca, Ms. Tania Alvarez, Dr. Orlando Ayala, Dr. Luis Guadano, and Ms. Maria Doran to bring a very interesting session entitled Effective Mentorship and Supervision - Inspiring the Next Generation.
Panelists opened the discussion exploring the terms, supervising, advising, and mentoring and how they navigate these roles and the difficulty maintaining one or the other. Panelists discussed how each of these roles overlap over time. In general, the panelists understood advising to be more of an academic role while supervision and mentorship involved a closer relationship. There is also the notion of choice. Panelists indicated that usually a mentee seeks you out and chooses you, however it is different in a supervisory or advisory role where students tend to be assigned. Prof. Luis Guadano stated, "We do not help students the best that we can if we limit ourselves to one role." Dr. Alan Mecca talked about the most successful relationships are those that are peered or matched.
The group discussed the concept of 21st Century advising as a Holistic approach in advising where issues that are not exactly academic but affect the academic performance. Stated more clearly, that non cognitive factors that can have an effect on the academic performance. In terms of popular topics that students need help with are being able to establish balance, trying to fill the void of not having family closeby by taking on extra work, that both parties to be on the same page in the relationship. Members talked about what happens when they wear all three hats: supervisor, advisor and mentor.
Dr. Orlando Ayala talked about the commitment that he invests in students and stated when you mentor or provide advising to students it is because you love it. Tania Alvarez provided insight on how to prioritize, establish boundaries and expectations while engaging with students. For example, who gets to have her cell phone number. Overall, the panelists expressed their commitment to Inspiring the Next Generation
Please view the recording on our faculty resource page.