Connecting with a faculty mentor or educational guide, like an advisor, can be an intimidating and time consuming process for many students. Faculty member Andrew Calabrese and staff member Kristi Barrowclough have some helpful advice on how to get started.
For students who don鈥檛 have the time, or don鈥檛 necessarily want to give up the time to build relationships, Barrowclough said there are other ways to get mentorship and guidance.听She encourages students to listen to TED talks or find professors they relate to.
Faculty office hours tips:
Going to office hours is your chance to meet face to face with your professors. Take advantage of the opportunity and get to know them. If it seems overwhelming, choose one professor to start with.
Regularly attending office hours may open the door to opportunities or interests you didn't know about, such as research projects, internships or even off-campus resources and connections.
Check in with your advisor, they are a great source of advice and can help with the mentoring process. More reasons to visit your advisor
鈥淚f you take a class from a professor that you really jibe with, that you learn from their style, take as many classes as you can with听them. Even if it鈥檚 not in your major, maybe it鈥檒l encourage you to add a second major or minor,鈥� she said.
Barrowclough helps undergraduate media and arts students expand their professional networks and find opportunities using an institutional approach. Her official job title recently evolved from career counselor to career development adviser to reflect the merging of arts and sciences, pre-health and pre-law into the MyCUhub advising center. Information from students鈥� files is now readily available over multiple forums. This means that advisers from different departments will be able to help students without requesting a transfer of information.
Although Barrowclough鈥檚 job is to help find connections for undergraduate students, she acknowledges that mentorship is not a one-way street. She advises students who want to build long-lasting connections to find mentors for different parts of their lives and then to engage them in discussion. This could be filling them in on guest speakers the student saw or even sharing an article they found interesting online.
Calabrese, a media professor took another approach to the idea of a mentor. Rather than just professional development, he believes that mentors have much more to offer.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 associate mentoring with life as much as we do with career, and that鈥檚 unfortunate,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think听mentoring really does go beyond career in terms of how someone offers you moral guidance.鈥�
He has worked mainly with graduate students, and usually connects with听students whose life goals and ideals are similar to his. This way, they can engage in honest and open dialogue about difficult or touchy subjects. As undergraduates, he and his friends became close with a group of professors. The professors often invited the group to dinner parties and inspired a love for academia.
鈥淭hat had a big effect on my feeling like this is an environment I really love, an academic environment,鈥� Calabrese said. 鈥淚t is the idea of being in a place where I could interact with people about ideas. . . . was like being in a candy store for me.鈥�
A big part of the challenge is taking the first step and going to office hours or meeting an advisor to talk.
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