Reflective Essay: Should There Be A Student Mentorship?

Mentorship plays such an important role in all of our lives regardless of vocation and interests. Delving into history we see how many of the renowned innovators, actors, politicians, and business leaders were mentored during some stage of their lives. I can recall the names of a few mentor-mentee relationships I became aware of over time - Plato mentored by Socrates - David Letterman mentored by Peter Lassally - Warren Buffet mentored by Benjamin Graham – Steve Jobs mentored by Robert Friedland - Russell Crowe mentored by Tom Sharpin and Bill Gates mentored by Dr. Ed Roberts. Having participated in mentorship at both ends of the spectrum, I know firsthand about its benefits, which include maturity, focus, diligence, accountability and sustained …show more content…
During these moments of challenge and doubt whether frequent or seldom, undergraduates should know that there is a trusted academic support resource they could turn to at any time for motivation and answers. The proposed system of academic mentorship should be a group that is led by a member of faculty for every course, is mandatory for all enrolled students and convenes regularly for the purpose of course content clarity, career focus and formulating plans to help struggling students. In universities and colleges, one of the most formative mentorship relationships is between a faculty member and student; and the mentorship relationship is commonly regarded as a central aspect of students’ research experiences (Brown, Daly, & Leong, 2009). Mentorship should not only be limited to research papers, but should be an intrinsic offering of the college to students for the duration of their program. Though this will be undertaken in a group setting since the traditional one-to-one mentor-mentee relationship is impractical, none of its positive effects will