Webs of Mentoring in Grad School Response

I enjoyed reading this article, "Webs of Mentoring in Graduate School." Mentoring isn't something I think about, especially now that I'm settled. I particularly like the idea of "older" graduate students mentoring those in the incoming class. Once someone is settled somewhere, it's like they completely forget what it's like to be 'the new kid.' Being new is difficult, and it's something we all are at one point or another (or many points). Simple things seem so hard in the beginning, when there are so many at once-- how to obtain a parking permit and a card for printing, where and what to eat on campus--it's like a rite of passage for people to figure these things out on their own, it seems, to suffer more than necessary, in essence. But it doesn't have to be this way.

I wonder if an established mentoring program between faculty and graduate students would work at someplace like this, a public institution where there are many more graduate students than faculty. I have a friend who is getting her MFA at Sarah Lawrence and she meets frequently with her professors, on and off campus. While I know my professors would be happy to meet with me and it's probably just as simple as asking, the professors here would not have the time or the energy to mentor all of us. For example, there are four creative writing professors and something like 35 creative writing students. I don't know what the solution to something this is, though it's possible that a creative writing student might actually benefit as much or more from being mentored by a Rhet Comp professor, or someone who writes literary criticism. I still find myself being resistant to criticism, to reading work from the 17th Century, all sorts of other things. Perhaps if I was mentored by someone who was passionate about one these things, it would completely change my mind.

Mostly I enjoyed this article because it's good to be reminded that we can't do it alone. No matter what one is trying to achieve in life, one's success depends on the help and generosity of many people.