Praise for Making Connections
Kathy E. Kram; Andrew J. Hobson; and Dave R. Woolstenhulme
This handbook is a must-read for anyone who wants to design an effective mentoring initiative in academia. The contributors include scholars and practitioners who have examined the challenges of creating high quality mentoring experiences in highly complex settings. Collectively, they address multiple target populations including undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and staff—as well as multiple approaches to mentoring ranging from traditional hierarchical mentoring, to co-mentoring, group mentoring and developmental networks. This is not a book to read cover to cover and then put on a shelf—instead, consulting a particular chapter at the moment that the reader is tackling yet another design, implementation, or evaluation challenge is the way to go.
-Dr. Kathy E. Kram, Shipley Professor in Management Emerita Boston University Questrom School of Business
Mentoring programs can have significant positive impacts for those who participate in them, including enhanced thinking, learning, development, effectiveness, well-being, retention, and can foster enhanced organizational cultures. Yet, depending on how the programs are established and maintained and how mentoring is enacted, these and other potential benefits are not always realized, and participation in mentoring programs can even have detrimental impacts. This handbook will be invaluable to colleagues seeking to develop or enhance mentoring programs in Higher Education. It will help such colleagues to understand how to maximize the positive impacts of mentoring and to minimize and avoid any adverse effects. It will help them to lobby organizational leaders for appropriate (and necessary) resources and support for mentoring programs in academia. Written and edited by experts in the field and informed by research and first-hand experience of leading mentoring programs in academia, I expect that Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia will have a profound positive impact on and in universities in the United States and worldwide.
-Dr. Andrew J. Hobson, Professor of Education, University of Brighton, UK, and Editor–in–Chief, “International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education”
Making Connections is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to cultivate a culture of belonging on campus through an effective mentorship program. As Commissioner of the Utah System of Higher Education, I have witnessed the profound impact of mentoring on the retention and achievement of our valued students, faculty, and staff. This handbook offers practical guidance on navigating the processes and resources involved in creating and sustaining a meaningful mentoring program. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking to improve retention rates and enhance professional development within their university community. This indispensable and approachable guide is one that readers will come back to again and again.
–Dr. Dave R. Woolstenhulme, Utah Commissioner of Higher Education
