Mentor Program

HFS is excited to introduce a Mentor Program for A/P new hires! We are asking for A/P staff to volunteer to serve as Mentors for these new hires.

Goals

The overarching goal of the Mentor Program is to assist in the transition of A/P new hires to our HFS organization. This assistance and additional goals includes;

Mentoring is about building relationships
Assist new staff in feeling welcome
Provide insight and recommendations on the culture and University/community resources
Professional and personal development for both participants in a mentoring relationship

Selecting Mentors

The following criteria may be used in selecting Mentors;

Minimum one year work experience in HFS at Purdue
Positive work performance, especially no disciplines within the last 2 years
Cannot be in a direct reporting relationship with the Mentee
Recommendation from your supervisor
Short interview
Sign a Participation Agreement (Letter of Commitment) typically 2 years.

Selection Timeline

The next eight hour Mentor Training will be scheduled Thursday, February 28th and February 29th.

Upon completion, Mentor can expect to be paired up with a Mentee. Please complete the Mentor Application below to be considered.

Interested in Becoming a Mentor?

Download and fill out Mentor Application

Why Does the Process of Mentoring Have Such a Major Impact on the People Involved?

Here are some comments from other Mentor Programs (ours is still very new):

“I was inspired… it was life-changing… new perspective on many things” ( Mentor)

“Learned an incredible amount… Extremely beneficial” (Mentee)

“The myth that the (Mentee) does all learning is wrong” ( Mentor)

“Good sounding board for issues at work… someone outside the department, independent”

How can the simple act of spending time in conversation with someone who is not even an expert in your field have such a significant impact? How does a relationship, which may seem contrived and artificial at first, become an affiliation of confidence and trust? And how does someone who is not a trained coach or counselor elicit the many cognitive and behavior changes evident in documented mentoring outcomes?

The answer may be found in the collage of the contemporary mentoring relationship, human being’s natural learning capabilities, and the synergy of human interaction!

Human beings have survived and thrived due to their ability to learn, in fact far beyond the stimulus-response of animals. With our cognitive abilities, people are able to reflect on personal experience to gain insight, access information from sources outside themselves, set goals, select strategies, implement plans, actively experiment and evaluate the results.

While most people undergo this learning on their own, the old saying “two heads are better than one” is the essence of the mentoring relationship. The reflection phase is enhanced by an objective listener and questioner. Information gathering is increased with the resources/references provided by someone who has been around. Goal setting and planning is more effective with an ally and obviously the experimental phase is supported by a friend. This all done with the mentoring process and that is why mentoring has such amazing results for those involved.

Watch this site for more information or e-mail Rod Butcher