Part 2: Good Sounding Boards

Think of a mentor as a Good Sounding Board (GSB) similar to a GPS. You choose where you want to go, and they help get you there. The choice of destination is the student’s, but their GSB can suggest a variety of routes and indicate highlights along the way.

A GSB is also a person who listens, values, supports, and encourages the journey. They give honest feedback and no criticism. They share their personal learning and experience with similar roads and provide information tips when appropriate. Finally, they will celebrate the student and their voice as they move on.  Mentors may be people who live within reach of campus or may be distant learners drawn to the opportunity of sharing ideas while also learning from and walking the paths students are embarking upon.

Text Attributions

This section contains material taken from the ALFA “What Is a Mentor?” brochure.

Sharing Experiences

Students can be greatly influenced by the interactions with their mentors. They can be surprised by individuals of other generations who are open to hearing their experiences and ideas. They can find it inspirational to have an audience who interacts with them and cares about their work. And they can learn much from the experiences of their mentors. Sharing experiences can be one of the most important aspects of being a mentor.

“What mentoring students under the Heritage of Change format has given me is not only a peek into issues facing our current generation, but why they find these concerns important. Just as important is this may be one of the first time these students have had a chance to be listened to as teachers to people eager to learn what they have discovered in their research, research that leads to intergenerational discussions with people who are not immediate family or teachers. Finally, my mentees’ topics always prompt me into my own research that may be a help to them as well their papers, teaching me something new about issues as diverse as overcoming racism in sports to how school systems treat disabilities, from trans people of the 19th century to the importance of retaining cultural heritage when moving to a new country. I believe I have become a better, more understanding and wiser person for having the chance to be part of this mentoring program.” – Gail Hoar, Heritages of Change Mentor

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Heritages of Change: Curatorial Activism and First-Year Writing [Revised Edition] Copyright © 2024 by Kisha G. Tracy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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