Geneviève L. PicardProfessors have long acted as mentors for their students. By sharing their knowledge and particularly the wisdom gained from their own experiences, they can have a tremendous impact on the future of young people. Yet students aren’t the only ones being mentored — the mentoring relationship also exists between professors, and the University of Ottawa has set up two programs in order to encourage and make this kind of sharing easier.
One of the programs is designed for professors while the other aims more specifically at people newly appointed to managing a department or acting as vice-dean of a faculty. According to Helen Knoll, Coordinator of the Centre for Academic Leadership, these two programs have three broad objectives: to familiarize people with their new responsibilities, to increase the participants’ satisfaction, and to support their networking efforts within the University.
Professors wishing to obtain a mentor contact the Centre for Academic Leadership, and with the help of Ms. Knoll, ascertain their goals and the kind of mentor they require; the Centre then suggests some names. “With the help of the vice-dean of the faculty, we strive to establish good mentorships,” says Ms. Knoll, who is pleased that all mentorship pairings to date have proceeded quite well. Once the mentor accepts, the two participants meet approximately once a month for an hour and a half, over a nine-month period.
Launched at the beginning of 2006, 22 mentorships have already been created under the programs, including that of Tyseer Aboulnasr, a professor with the Faculty of Engineering and dean from 1998 to 2004, and Louise Lemyre, a full professor at the School of Psychology and chairholder of the McLaughlin Research Chair at the Institute of Population Health.
Having subsequently become friends, both speak enthusiastically about their mentorship experience. “I had chosen Tyseer Aboulnasr because I suspected that she had already overcome certain challenges which I then faced, and also because she was familiar with a world that was virtually unknown to me,” recalls Louise Lemyre. “She could teach me how to ‘break the code’ and give me access to a new body of knowledge. We clicked exceptionally well!”
“At all stages of your life, you need somebody whom you can trust, somebody who will ask you difficult questions,” insists Ms. Aboulnasr, “somebody who challenges you when you are taking it too easy and reassures you when you are lacking confidence. If you find someone like that, hold on to them and don’t let go!”
Jacques Barrette, director of the Centre of Academic Leadership, reveals that professor Nicola Gazzola inspired him to create the mentorship program for professors. Recalling the many questions which had plagued him when he first joined the Faculty of Education, professor Gazzola had organized a series of workshops for newcomers in September 2003. The following year, he set up a mentoring service that is still very popular at the Faculty to this day. “The first year of teaching is very stressful,” confides professor Gazzola. “You are often adjusting to a new city, dealing with the obligation to publish, and most of the time, you were not even trained to teach…if a mentor can help ease a bit of the pressure, it’s very welcome,” he says.
Learn more about the mentoring programs at the Centre for Academic Leadership:
www.academicleadership.uottawa.ca.
