Mentee update & Encouragement from Reading to You

Mentee Update - A request to look at another paper - Yay!
In contacting my mentees this week, one responded with a request that I look at her final paper. This mentee has been the consistent one of the three that has continued to respond to my outreach and work with me a few times. She has been a blessing because if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have had much of a mentor hands on experience; though I feel through our class discussions and shared experiences I've had a growing, reflective and evaluative process as a mentor. The other two mentees have been great, I have enjoyed any contact with them but it has seemed more of a struggle and I definitely will model Kristina Butler's approach next time I'm in this situation. So my mentee sent me her final paper and said she wanted an "A". I went to the Dance Syllabus and there was actually "Criteria for an A" listed in the syllabus. I copied and pasted that along with the instructions for the paper and inserted it at the top. The paper seemed like it lacked the "critical analysis" piece for the "A". I saw some great themes and commonalities in the paper that my mentee could reflect on and write about for the analytical piece if she chose too. I commented on her paper, bolded the areas that had information related to possible themes for analysis and emailed it back and texted her. I ended up calling her and we talked for a bit. It was fun bouncing off ideas back and forth. I asked her if she wanted me to review her paper again after her additions and she said yes. So I will get a final glimpse of her paper today, I hope, as it is due tomorrow.

An Encouragement for You and and Idea for Future Class:
So in my reading for my book report; the way it relates to mentorship is that as mentors we are working with potentially beginning researchers. The book talks about the importance of mentorship and modeling for beginning researchers. The portion I wanted to pass on to you is it states that beginning researchers "have a responsibility to seek out and work with their mentors". Of course it spoke about the mentors as the ones who reach out to mentees being primary, but this portion of the book caught my attention. It's expected that mentors and mentees exhibit "professional behavior";this expectation that mentees reach out to mentors I think should be one of the expectations included in the guidelines of expectations for the next class. If the responsibility to connect was on both shoulders, I think we would see more connecting and accountability in the mentor/mentee process overall. What do you think? So be encouraged mentors! Those who haven't had the best of luck; perhaps including shared responsibility between both parties will add to the success of this class in the future! Thanks and have the best day! Christina