{"344841":{"#nid":"344841","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New Faculty Find Way through Mentoring","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022intro-text\u0022\u003EFor new faculty, the university environment is not necessarily new but can be an overwhelming entity of operations during the first years. At Tech, many find their place among their peers on campus through mentoring.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo some, mentoring is a formalized one-on-one relationship with a senior advisor; to others, it\u2019s casual conversations, relationships that form over time, or short bursts of well-timed advice.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch6 class=\u0022p6\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPeople Want to Help\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h6\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty\/bio\/pollock\u0022\u003EAnne Pollock\u003C\/a\u003E (LMC) took her first faculty position at Tech nearly seven years ago, she asked a senior faculty member she admired to be her mentor\u2014but he declined. Rather than let this be the end of her pursuit of mentorship, she took it as a learning experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYou can\u2019t take things too personally when you ask for help,\u201d she said. She has since pursued informal mentoring relationships with a number of colleagues, each of whom is helpful in different ways, depending on experience or expertise.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDespite declining a formal mentoring relationship, the senior faculty member later provided Pollock with valuable tips on teaching preparation, proving one of her tenets of mentorship: People want to share their insights.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPollock has also benefited from being the one mentoring. She advises postdoctoral fellows and has offered advice to others who are starting out on their academic trajectories.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s intellectually stimulating and keeps you thinking strategically about your own work,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I\u2019m talking to postdocs about their next publication or how they are developing their careers, it makes me think about my own, too.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe fellows she advises don\u2019t work in her same academic space, but she can still provide feedback on their endeavors. Similarly, formal mentor relationships don\u2019t necessarily need to be with someone in the same area of expertise. Common ground can be found in a number of areas, and mentors should not be trying to make their mentees follow the same paths they chose.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere are many routes to excellence, and mentorship is more useful if we consider the individual\u2019s trajectory,\u201d Pollock said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOutside of junior-senior faculty relationships, Pollock believes relationships with staff have been essential to her success as well because of staff members\u2019 institutional and operational knowledge.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThough Pollock hasn\u2019t had a formal mentor, she has gotten useful feedback in annual reviews. She believes there is value in having a combination of both informal and formal arrangements. Informal settings can be better for individual projects or tasks. Formal settings can be less personal, and, therefore, provide the opportunity for more objective feedback and the \u201cbrass tacks\u201d that are sometimes needed for progress.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFor formal relationships, it helps mentors to have some structure of what it is they\u2019re supposed to be covering or discussing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be just grousing or just cheerleading.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch6 class=\u0022p7\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMany Paths for Success\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h6\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe \u003Cstrong\u003ESchool of Literature, Media, and Communication\u003C\/strong\u003E recently adopted a mentorship structure that lets junior faculty choose their mentors from a pool of senior faculty who have stated their interest in mentoring.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cNew faculty are often at the bottom of the \u2018food chain,\u2019 and this empowers them by leaving some meaningful choices to them,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/faculty-and-staff\/faculty\/bio\/utz\u0022\u003ERichard Utz\u003C\/a\u003E, professor and chair in the school. They still discuss the selection with Utz, who can provide input on whether the selection is a good fit.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUtz encourages faculty to look to those outside their specialty area to increase collaboration, inclusion, and interdisciplinary endeavors. Still, he recognizes that formal mentoring is not for everyone.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSome new faculty might actually prefer not to be mentored, seeing the program as a burden more than an advantage,\u201d he said. \u201cIn all these discussions, it\u2019s of great importance that new faculty succeed in finding their own place in their new unit, and they should have a say in what happens during the mentoring process.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENo matter the format, both mentors and mentees seem to come to the table with the same sentiment: They want to get better.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cEveryone can be more excellent,\u201d Pollock said.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor new faculty, the university environment is not necessarily new but can be an overwhelming entity of operations during the first years. At Tech, many find their place among their peers on campus through mentoring.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"For new faculty, the university environment is not necessarily new but can be an overwhelming entity of operations during the first years. At Tech, many find their place among their peers on campus through mentoring."}],"uid":"27889","created_gmt":"2014-11-12 13:56:39","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:30","author":"Beth Godfrey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-11-12T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2014-11-12T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"344831":{"id":"344831","type":"image","title":"Anne Pollock","body":null,"created":"1449245654","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:14:14","changed":"1475895068","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:51:08","alt":"Anne Pollock","file":{"fid":"200895","name":"pollock.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/pollock_0.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/pollock_0.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2460368,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/pollock_0.jpeg?itok=ekHJuCBR"}}},"media_ids":["344831"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"25611","name":"Anne Pollock"},{"id":"1506","name":"faculty"},{"id":"39781","name":"LMC"},{"id":"868","name":"Mentor"},{"id":"33431","name":"Richard Utz"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EKristin Bailey\u003Cbr \/\u003EInstitute Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kristen.bailey@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ekristen.bailey@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}