Mentors as Fellow Travelers

A junior faculty member arrives at an unfamiliar university for a new teaching assignment. She is poised for the adventure, but feels like a traveler at the edge of long, unknown road. She does not know what obstacles or vistas may appear on the road, and wants to avoid major potholes. She takes a nervous look around and finds an experienced traveler nearby at the beginning of the road. The fellow traveler is a more senior faculty member who has gone farther up the road already and come back to share valuable experience with newcomers. Together the junior and senior travelers set off on their adventure. Their journey illustrates how faculty developers at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) acted as travel guides in a mentoring program that increased the likelihood of successful travels toward university careers. At CSUDH, faculty developers host orientation activities for new faculty members. Orientation is an ideal time for fellow travelers to meet. Although it looks different on every campus, the intent is the same--to provide early career faculty with an introduction to the university and foster a high level of success. Junior and senior faculty members are guided by faculty developers to form mentoring pairs. Arrangements made by faculty developers enabled junior and senior faculty members to meet and become fellow travelers.