In this session, we continued to discuss W. Brad Johnson’s (2008), The Elements of Mentoring, looking more specifically at the latter half of the book that hones in on how a mentor/ mentee relationship is arranged and and matters of integrity within the relationship. In this session, we addressed mentoring as it relates to college-wide retention efforts and how important it is for everyone to have a mentor as part of a general success plan in life. We also touched on KCC faculty member, Michael Miranda’s (2014), article The Seven False Beliefs: Addressing the Psychosocial Underpreparedness of the Community College Student and how this helps us to understand the types of students we are working with at KCC.

This was the first FIG of the fall 2015 semester. In this session, participants were asked to pre-read the first sections of W. Brad Johnson’s (2008), The Elements of Mentoring that examine the skills as well as style and personality of good mentors. We also discussed basics about the possible benefits of mentoring and defined what mentoring is/ is not along with providing an overview about the status of the Faculty-Student mentoring program. This session was intended to be part training for any new mentors looking to be matched to a mentee or those already providing mentoring, but have never sat through any formal training about mentoring.