What's in it for me?
The Mentoring Program links SIS students with practicing professionals in a specific area of librarianship or information sciences that matches their interest. The program also provides alumni and non-alumni working professionals the opportunity to share their knowledge, network with energetic and eager students, and to get to know the curriculum and program at SIS better.
Benefits of the SIS Mentoring Program
- Helps students to be socialized into the profession
- Helps “jump start” the practice
- Initiates professional networking
- Students receive guidance in developing a professional portfolio, including resume and cover letters
- Expands sources of employment references
- Students gain confidence through nurtured feedback
- Students engage in shared experience with mentor
- Helps students learn about their strengths and weaknesses through nurtured feedback
- Provides opportunities for recruitment to the profession and/or employment setting
Mentor Sign-up Form
Student Sign-up Form
Mentors:
This program allows mentors to further develop personal and professional skills and obtain a fresh perspective of the field. SIS invites mentors to work at a distance, as well as locally, and invites non-alumni professionals to participate, as well as School alumni. When possible, mentors should invite their student (or mentee) to visit their worksite and encourage the student through contact made in person, by phone or via email. Listed below are activities that a mentor could provide a student:
- Allow on-site visits so student can become familiar with the work environment.
- Discuss class work and projects with students.
- Suggest professional articles that may interest the student.
- Allow student access to appropriate materials in the collection to help complete a class project. For example a student might examine a portion of your shelf list in order to analyze a collection.
- Invite students to participate in activities that they might find of interest at your workplace. In a school setting a student might work on a project with a small group of children.
Students:
This is an opportunity for you to experience a real life work situation.
- Try to meet with your mentor on a regular basis.
- Inform your mentor about what type of experiences you would like to be involved in.
- Specify what you hope to learn.
- Follow up visits with a letter of thanks. This could be done at the end of a semester if you will be visiting often.
- The student should understand that this is a mentoring experience. The experience should not be viewed as a job opportunity or a source of references.
How the program works:
- Registration for the Mentoring Program opens in late March and is for 2nd year students only.
- Mentors will be assigned a student for one academic year (from September to August).
- Mentors will make the first contact and establish the means of communication that works best for everyone.
- Matches are made by locale/interest; first come, first serve. Registration closes in late April. Matches will be completed by the end of the semester.
- Students and mentors are asked to evaluate the process twice a year.
Students and mentors are matched based primarily on their interests. Students are welcome to self-select a mentor during the enrollment period in Spring 2010. If a student's assigned mentor doesn't prove to be a good fit for a student, that student can peruse the "Mentoring Bank" and choose another mentor who appears more suitable (if that mentor is available). The mentoring committee does its best to make meaningful matches between students and mentors, and so your feedback is appreciated.
Contact Tanya Arnold for more information about the SIS Mentoring Program.
