Along with 15 contributors, UCA’s Vice President of Student Affairs Robin Williamson published a book chapter to help first-generation college students navigate a career in higher education.
The book, titled “First-generation Professionals in Higher Education: Strategies for the World of Work,” was announced to be released March 15, 2022, by the Center for First-generation Student Success, an initiative of NASPA and The Suder Foundation.
The book’s primary author—Mary Wallace, assistant vice president for Student Experience at the University of Alabama at Birmingham—looked for contributors who not only work in the field of Student Affairs but are also first-generation students themselves.
The book is divided into three sections: Professional Identity, Purposeful Interaction and Career Path. Williamson’s chapter, which is featured in the Purposeful Interactions section, is titled “Empowerment Through Mentoring.”
During Williamson’s writing process, she had two mentors that she drew inspiration from — Anne Grove, who worked as the hall director at Williamson’s undergraduate university, and Mary Janz, who was a colleague of Williamson during her time at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
As a first-generation student, Williamson emphasized how important it is to have different mentoring relationships to navigate all phases of a career.
“I think a lot of times in higher education when we talk about mentoring, we think about it from a faculty or staff perspective with a student, like we mentor students or we create mentoring programs for students to help them adjust… But it’s really important to actively seek out and nurture mentoring relationships at all levels of the professional career,” Williamson said.
The different kinds of relationships can be mentoring, sponsorship or a role model relationship. Williamson said it’s important to understand these different relationships to ensure clear expectations.
A mentoring relationship is “meant to be mutually beneficial for both parties,” Williamson said. The mentor guides and provides wisdom, but a protege can provide input and new ideas as well.
A sponsorship relationship is “important for professional growth and development, but it’s a different type of relationship,” Williamson said.
She used Janz, who gave Williamson her first professional job out of graduate school, as an example. “[Janz] has always been a mentor, but she also kind of turned into a sponsor and helped me find the next step. She was willing to make those informal calls… and advance my career,” Williamson said.
The role model relationship “may not even be a direct interaction,” Williamson said. “Maybe they admire you because of the way you present yourself in a classroom or in a public setting.”
Williamson started writing this chapter before the pandemic so that not only made the process more complex but it added a different element to the book.
“I hope that we can continue talking about mentoring, not just for my profession, like the profession of Student Affairs, but I think when we’re thinking about this pandemic and the impact it has had on all of us,” Williamson said. “I think mentoring could also be another helpful tool to kind of think about how we make up for lost experiences, lost time. How do we help students think about feeling underprepared for academic success, professional success? Mentorship could go a really long way.”
Williamson said she would be interested in engaging in conversations on UCA’s campus to promote mentoring relationships.