Mentorship

To me, mentorship is tending to, supporting, investing in, and growing another person. It’s a two-way street where both people in the relationship receive wisdom from each other. It’s an egalitarian relationship about care, empathy, generosity, and compassion that builds over time. Both people are vulnerable and honest with each other and trust each other to be honest.

Without caring and compassionate mentorship, I would not be where I am now. During my PhD, the mentorship from my adviser, committee members, and peers who became dear friends encouraged me to keep going when I thought I couldn’t do it. And when we layer the structural conditions of academia–the lack of secure and well-paying jobs; the implicit and explicit soup of racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and classism; and the list goes on–mentorship and the solidarity that stems from it, become all the more important if we are to survive and sometimes thrive. 

Black, Indigenous, and women of color, non-binary, queer, trans, working class, and disabled students are much less likely to graduate from college or grad school, they are much less likely to get tenure or make it to full professor. This is reflected in numerous studies across disciplines. They are brilliant scholars who are more than capable of making it through all of these experiences but the psychosocial toll of working in toxic, normative work environments that invalidate their lives, their experiences, and their very existence becomes too much. While mentorship cannot change the structural conditions of academia or whatever profession we’re in, it can make life bearable and livable within professions that weren’t made for us.

When I was leaving academia, I was going to miss mentoring students and growing the next generation of activists, radical scholars, organizers, poets, artists, teachers, and engaged citizens. Luckily, I continue to hone my mentorship practice through my current public health work. Now, I work towards growing the next generation of public health workers who reflect the people who live where we work. And to my elation, I continue to stay in touch with some of my student mentees from my academic life.