Mentoring- What is it all about?
On Monday morning I received a call from a coworker. Last week I had been interviewed on a project I was managing at WTAMU and it made the front page of the newspaper (if you want to read about it click
here). My coworker asked if I would be willing to give a short presentation on Thursday at the Region 16 Gifted and Talented workshop for teachers from all over the Panhandle of Texas. I agreed because what type of Toastmaster would I be if I did not practice ARTS (always ready to speak). At the time I was unsure of what I would talk about but after getting home that evening my new Toastmasters magazine had arrived and on the front page of the magazine they were showcasing mentoring. I started thinking about who I have mentored and then thought back even further to who mentored me and how it played an important role in how I got to where I am today. In high school I took chemistry in 10th grade like most high school students. My teacher was Mr. Merle Bush. He was about 5'5" ran around in a white lab coat always had a smile on his face and was passionate about teaching chemistry and physics. I can remember him writing a problem on the chalk board having trouble figuring out the math so he would stop and tell us he would be right back. he would then fling the door of our classroom open charge down the 3rd floor hallway and charge into Mrs Stokes class interrupting her class. (Mrs. Stokes was my second favorite teacher and taught me algebra II). He would erase whatever she had on her board in the classroom and then put up his math problem. She would solve it for him, he would thank her and then race back to our classroom. (Sidenote: I finally got to experience this from the math side my junior year while in Mrs. Stokes class, additionally if you were on the second floor you could here Mr Bush running down the hallway). He taught me to love chemistry and physics and also taught me that it is ok to have weaknesses and show them. Fast forward to 1997, I sent Mr. Bush an announcement for my college graduation. I received a card back from him. It said to me Congratulations and ended with "What are you going to do next?" To this day I never think well this is it I have reached the apex but I always approach the end of a project and wonder well Stephanie what are you going to do next? His mentoring even though it was informal and more of a teacher/student relationship has helped me focus my life. Fastforward to last year. Last summer I had my first intern in my laboratory. I was unsure what I would be getting into with a student who had only basic chemistry but decided I would approach having her in my lab like I would have liked to be approached when I took over my lab. I prepared about 200 pages of reading material, presentations, and information about the instruments she would be using while I was gone her first week. When I returned she and I went through her notes and helped her determine a path forward. During the summer I helped her design experiments, document her experiment, how to read material safety data sheets on the chemicals she was using. I also took her to a Toastmasters meeting. Unfortunately she was only there for 2 1/2 months and we have a closed club so she did not join. However, at the end of the summer I helped her prepare a 5 minute presentation about the research she did over the summer. In return she gave me a wonderful card(which I still have in my office). She thanked me for opening her eyes to the different aspects of chemistry and told me she was thinking about getting her PhD in chemistry. She reapplied for the internship and will be working with me once again this summer so hopefully I am not as mean as I think I am based on her wanting to return to work with me.
Onto my current project. I would say this project was more of a collaboration than a true mentorship. Our group comprised facutly from WTAMU engineering department, two students, the end user, and myself the chemist. What was great about this project was the chance the students got to do hands on work on an R & D project. This gave them real world experience that they could not have gained in most university settings. Did I mentor them in engineering? No that was their faculty advisor's job but I did help them understand the interface of the chemistry and engineering and got them to realize that calling and asking for help is ok when you are not a subject matter expert.
So how does this relate to Toastmasters you ask? Well when I joined Toastmasters the first thing that happened was my club assigned me an "official" mentor to help me with my speeches. Of course as part of our leadership development as we become more experienced Toastmasters we also mentor new members. The majority of my home club acts as mentors to each other at one time or another whether we are mentoring each other for contests or getting ready for business presentations. Everyone is a mentor in one form or another and if someone admires us we play an informal mentor. All of us are human and make mistakes with our words. However, having the opportunity to go speak about mentoring opened my eyes to the affect that I have on individuals around me. If I am negative and say negative or mean things I may ruin someone's passion for an activity.
I encourage you if you haven't mentored someone take time to do it. Not only will you help them but you will also help yourself. I have learned that I understand more about my work when I have to explain it to someone else and coaching, collaborating, and working side-by-side is the best way to mentor.
