Hope College: Initium: A Newly Integrated Program for Mentoring New Faculty to be Mission-Oriented Teacher-Scholars
Co-Directors: Carol Simon, Interim Dean for Social Sciences and Professor of Philosophy, Jack Mulder, Professor of Philosophy, and Laura Pardo, Professor of Education

Hope College plans to redesign its existing mentoring programs into an integrated program which will be more effective in serving all new faculty members.  The program will provide new faculty with insight into what it means to be a mission-oriented professor at Hope College and will equip them with skills and knowledge to become full participants in Hope’s mission as a liberal arts college in the context of the historic Christian faith.  The mentoring grant will support the redesign of the mentoring program at Hope, including the development of new syllabi and lesson plans for the workshops that stretch from just before new faculty start teaching through their second year as Hope faculty. 

Salve Regina: Mentoring Junior Faculty for Mission
Directors: Donna M. Cook, Ed.D, Assistant Provost for Academic Administration and Dean de la Motte, Ph.D., Provost and Dean of the Faculty

Salve Regina University’s mentoring program for junior faculty is a new pilot program to serve as the catalyst and framework for a permanent commitment to faculty mentoring in subsequent years.  The goals of the mentoring program are to use the Salve Regina mission as a guidepost for all university programming, whether academic or co-curricular to integrate the tenants of Catholic social teaching, incorporate the Mercy charism into instruction wherever possible, and to bring the ideas of service and stewardship into faculty practice.  The program will also act as a vehicle for professional development, support both the psychosocial and career aspects of development, encourage discipline-specific research both internally (with faculty and students) and externally (through professional organizations), and provide a variety of informational sessions based on faculty preferences.  It will also foster and nurture relationships, create a collegial atmosphere to encourage interaction between faculty members, offer ample opportunities for collaboration among faculty colleagues, and provide information on various constituencies across campus to encourage collaboration across divisions.  The mentoring program also seeks to enhance teaching through best practices of educational pedagogy, provide guidance on multiple teaching strategies to engage today’s learners, increase faculty awareness of available teaching tools, and present information on teaching and learning theory.

Westmont College, Mentoring Program for New, Junior, and Senior Faculty
Director: Deborah S. Dunn, Professor, Director of Faculty Mentoring

Westmont College’s mentoring program will involve two aspects.  The first is aimed toward mentoring new and junior faculty, helping them to envision their roles both in the broader academy and disciplinary guilds, and as teachers and scholars at Westmont College.  The second project is designed to help senior faculty toward a renewed, revitalized, or revised vision of vocation, service, and scholarship, and in the process, identify future mentors.  Both programs are aimed at mentoring faculty, and both programs may look similar at first blush, but the major difference is that in the first group new faculty members receive active, regular, systematic, and personal mentoring from their more seasoned colleagues; in the second project, senior faculty work in peer groups to encourage and support one another through both rigorous self-assessment and honest reflection such that they then become the mentors and role models needed by junior faculty.