Leaders: Mindy Landeck
Book: Mentor Coaching: Effective Mentoring for the Personal and Professional Development of Young Adults
Author: Terrice Thomas
Description: In Mentor Coaching, activist and educator Terrice Thomas addresses the myriad ways in which Gen Z young people report feeling ill-equipped for success during their college years and woefully unprepared for the demands of “adulting” in post-college life. Effective mentoring can exercise a transformative impact on how young people become empowered to manage and direct their educational, personal, and professional lives. Thomas draws anecdotally on her extensive backgrounds in community leadership, local government, and non-profit work to explore different modes of mentoring work, and offer workable strategies for how both mentors and mentees may maximize the potential benefits of the mentoring relationship while navigating common pitfalls. It is my hope that this book, like many others on mentoring that have been featured in past Johnson Center book groups, will allow a new group of AC faculty to come together to think creatively and proactively about this important component of our work at the College.
Information from the Group Leader: Mentoring is a facet of faculty life on campus that impacts all of us. In my role as Co-Director of Mentoring, part of my charge is to collaborate with the Johnson Center to foreground mentoring concerns, resources, and strategies in our professional development offerings, and following in the footsteps of Bob Cape and Karla McCain, one good way to jump-start these conversations is to read and discuss some of the excellent body of literature available on mentoring. I have personally been a participant in both of these earlier book groups. Ms. Thomas’ book is a recent publication, released in December of 2021, and is written in an eminently readable style comprised of short chapters that all end with key takeaways and points for discussion. It combines an accessible mix of anecdotes, case studies, cutting-edge research and suggestions for how to mentor Gen Z students effectively and excellently.