By Monette Austin Bailey

Illustrations by Jeanette J. Nelson

Valuable research data. A vote of confidence. Well-timed guidance. As mentors, faculty members provide these and more to their students, expanding their education beyond textbooks and case studies.

But mentoring at the university, whether arranged formally or generated through shared interests, isn’t just about leading and following. The emphasis is on the faculty member supporting students, and allowing them to make their own discoveries—and mistakes—to deepen their experience.

The university doesn’t have a program that joins students with particular faculty members, but many students successfully rely on their own matchmaking skills.

Cherry Kwunyeun M.B.A. ’08 became interested in Michel Wedel’s work on eye-tracking technology and its use to study consumer attention to visual marketing while taking his marketing analytics course. Wedel, who holds the Pepsico Chair of Consumer Science at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, encouraged Kwunyeun to complete an independent study project analyzing the Web site of her newly launched handbag company, and others, using the technology.

Using principles she learned under his guidance, she is creating a site that communicates the social impact of her company, Blumpari, as well as her products.

“My team and I found that the best aspect of our study was Dr. Wedel’s mentorship,” she wrote in a letter to marketing associate professor Robert Krapfel. “Dr. Wedel is dedicated to imparting to students high-level, analytical, problem-solving skills to tackle the competitive landscape of business.”

In another competitive arena, members of Terp Racing won the international Formula SAE West championship last summer, after being given plenty of resources and freedom to make decisions, says the team’s advisor, Greg Schultz. An adjunct associate professor in mechanical engineering, he maintains that his role was more of a fundraiser and organizer.

“It’s a balancing act of how much you get involved. Part of it is trying to teach them, getting the student leaders to learn to make decisions and handle people,” he says, adding that students joked with him for not spending enough time with them. “It’s teaching them how to do things, not telling them what to do,” says Schultz.

Rafael Lorente agrees. A lecturer in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism and Annapolis bureau director for Capital News Service, or CNS, he took a team of graduate and undergraduate students to cover the Democratic National Convention in Denver earlier this year. Student stories, from both conventions, went to several news publications, a news-radio station, a statewide public television network and several online services. Lorente says he drew from his experience as a father of two to shape his interaction with the four students in his charge.

“I thought, ‘I have to get them to tell me how they’ll do it. What are you trying to do? What have you tried?’ Help them come to it on their own,” he says. A challenge for him was to make sure both the media clients and students got what they needed out of the experience.

Robert Waters, associate vice president and special assistant to the president, has enjoyed being a mentor for Incentive Awards Program scholars for four years. He appreciates just as much, however, relationships that develop when a faculty member seeks to nurture a student's interest or a student seeks out a teacher for guidance.

For at least four years, Corey Powell ’05, M. Arch. ’07 has called School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation Professor Gary Bowden friend and mentor. An African American, Powell saw few fellow students who looked like him and Bowden on the faculty. He had been assigned a mentor through the school, “which was great, but it was good to establish a second layer of connection,” says Powell, adding that he was also drawn by Bowden’s reputation as a talented architect. Their frank discussions have helped shape Powell’s career and he’s considering teaching part-time, based partly on Bowden’s example.

Bowden says it’s been a rewarding friendship— he attended Powell’s wedding last summer—and that Powell’s seeking him out “made me more aware of the responsibility I had to him.”

Rhonda Malone, director of faculty mentoring and development, says being connected, especially on such a large campus, is critical. “The No. 1 way to retain students of color, for example, is to retain faculty of color.” She works with Associate Provost Ellin Scholnick and Arthur N. Popper, associate dean in the College of Chemical and Life Sciences, to host workshops for faculty. They also created a guide on mentoring junior faculty.

University administrators are additionally trying to foster more faculty-student interaction beyond the classroom, in hopes of replicating meaningful connections such as the relationship shared by Powell and Bowden. Waters says it seems to be a welcome idea, as professors participate in evening events with students, such as readings or talks and last spring’s well-attended facultystudent dinner.

“Most faculty were really excited and knew at least five students who they wanted to invite,” he says. Adrianne Flynn, CNS Washington, D.C., bureau director, adds that “if you're any kind of teacher at all,” you’ll never pass up an opportunity to offer something extra. Students, however, need also to reach out when they need help, she says.

Some of the emphasis on mentorship flows from renewed attention to supporting stronger faculty-to-faculty relationships. The newest version of the Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure process calls for all junior faculty to be appointed a mentor. One criterion for tenure is how good a mentor faculty member is to students. The university’s strategic plan calls for departments to “articulate explicit expectations for faculty mentoring. Quality of mentoring will be an important factor in the review of faculty for promotion and merit pay.”

No matter its structure, mentoring can enrich the academic experience for all involved. Lorente says he loves his interaction with students. “They’re really smart. You just give them a little direction and then trust them.” TERP

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