Mentorship Matters February 2024 - The rewards of being a mentor: A surprising gift of self-reflection on self-identity

In my role as Mentorship Lead, I have had the utmost privilege of matching our faculty members up to mentors based on their self-identified needs. In last month’s Mentorship Matters column, I shared with you a faculty member’s gratitude for identifying a mentor who provided career-affirming guidance on navigating academia while being neurodiverse. I received the following heartfelt and inspiring response from the mentor, and have their permission to share their reflection with you:

"I have to say that I had not expected meeting Edward* to be so impactful on my end. Since meeting Edward, I have been reflecting on both the value of “masking” in academic settings, as well as the toll this type of code switching has on faculty members who have ANY type of difference as compared to the dominant culture.

This applies to women who are asked to “lead more assertively,” or racialized folks who may feel that they need to change the way they speak/dress to fit in, or any other slang that a certain generation uses but has no real harm - like when our gen Z students start a handover for a patient they’re worried about by telling me “the vibes are off”- but then proceed to articulate beautifully as to why they feel that is the case.

As a mentor, I’ve always tried so hard to make sure that the mentee knows that I truly “see” who they are - in all their messy, brilliant selves - and I try my best to be as honest as possible about my own challenges so we have a space where we can connect and be real. And as a mentor, I feel that I often find myself reassuring mentees that while their concerns are real- they can be sometimes overblown; many of the dominant culture “rules” are not as set in stone as they perceive them to be/or are led to believe by the institution. I try to provide them practical and actionable tips (eg. work with your team to create a workflow that works AROUND your challenges, rather than grinding daily against a workflow that will likely never be easy for you) to ensure that they can do their jobs excellently while leveraging their unique strengths and backgrounds.

Thanks again for giving me this opportunity for self-reflection. Edward - I’m sure you’ll do amazing things and am privileged to have played a small part in your journey.”

And I am privileged to be a member of this community and culture that works to embrace and support each other in all our diversity and beauty.

Catherine Yu, Mentorship Lead

*Anonymized