My favorite mentor story is about a psychology professor I worked for during my senior year at Columbia. He ran the Vision Science Laboratory with three or four graduate students. I showed up on my first day and he threw me a small red book, called Programming in C, and told me to learn it so I can help “reprogram the stimulus on the Techtronix monitor and rewire the input box” for his latest experiments. Oh and then write a script or two to analyze the results.

I sort of freaked because I had no idea what he was talking about. There were wires and metal button boxes and a huge TV monitor with several computer components connected to it. Behind was a box loaded with little switches and more wires. Somehow I was supposed to write a program that would make it all work. I hadn't taken a programming course since Apple Basic in 10th grade. The graduate students laughed at me a lot, but I read the book, got the hang of it and ended up having the most fun that year.

Second semester, the same professor challenged me to take another semester of Calculus. I hadn't taken the first semester Calculus since freshman year but he said I could do it. Well, I failed the first test, which was basically, “name the formula you use to solve the following problems.” But because I had that initial push and a lot of encouragement from a professor who showed me how to teach myself, I realized that I could get through it, though it was indeed a struggle. I ultimately took the pass/fail option and passed.

I always thought mentors and heroes had to be superstars. I admit that I have had my own little quiet conversations with Mozart & Washington a la HClinton & ERoosevelt, but if you do that too much, you end up finding yourself falling way too short in comparison. I don't need to write a symphony or win a country. Knowing I challenged myself and figured out how to get through it by myself was one of the best lessons I've ever learned.

Noreen

Gen-X? In any case, it's an important baseline observation against which to compare future research ;-)

You define mentors as someone who provides guidance through interaction. I chose instead to align mentorship with idolization or inspiration. Though I admit part of that 're-definition' is becuase Monday Mentors just sounds better.

good luck in this series! i'll be watching it carefully

Like you, from an early age, the notion of a personal hero or mentor just seemed full of shit. Or just very foreign to me. Also, the way Americans throw the word “hero” around it's hard to get real meaning out of it these days.

Looking forward to the feedback you received!