The primary mentor’s role here is to assist mentees to figure out what their educational needs and interests are, design their own degree programs, and become a well-rounded college graduate. As a way of introduction, I shall point out the philosophy and practices that Empire State College strives to maintain. And I hope this will also give you a sense as how mentoring/teaching works in this college.
Many students have come to realize that Empire State College is a true “non-traditional” college where students have a greater degree of freedom to individualize their degree programs. To foster this possibility, students are encouraged to critically explore the needs, interests, reasons, and assumptions they have towards their college education. The college does not provide a pre-structured degree program for students to follow. In stead, students use the college’s Area of Study Guidelines or other self-identified sources to plan their degree program. This allows students to include formal college courses as well as informal prior learning/life experience into their individualized programs. Because we believe that college level education can take place not only in the formal educational setting but also work place and even at home, we encourage students turn their working and life experience into college credits (through Empire State College’s unique assessment process called, Prior Learning Assessment).
To ensure that each student takes an active role in pursuing their college education and successfully designs a meaningful degree program, the college assigns each student a mentor and requires each student to take at least a total of 4 credits of educational planning courses. Some of these credits are taken with the mentor. Each Empire State College’s mentor has a number of students from different academic areas and personal goals; therefore, it is critical that students keep regular contact with the mentor.
I have been working at the college’s Center for Distance Learning since 2003 and still believe in the value of individualized degree program. Therefore, I very much welcome in-depth discussion with students via phone or email about their individual goals, interests, and assumptions towards college education. My experience has also taught me that to benefit from a greater degree of freedom, students may also need to strengthen their academic, (online) research, communication, organizational, and time management skills. Therefore, my additional mentoring goal is to help students strengthen these skills. I may ask or remind students to clarify their questions, be precise, keep notes of our conversation, provide resources to support their educational plan, etc.
Mentoring is a part of my assignments as faculty at CDL. As an Associate Professor, I teach courses every semester, conduct academic research, and publish papers in academic journals. I am also an area coordinator/chair for the Arts and Educational Studies.