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• Individual recognition and encouragement
• Honest criticism and informal feedback
• Advice on how to balance education, career, and extracurricular activities and set professional priorities
• Knowledge of the informal rules for advancement
• Information on how to "behave" in a variety of professional settings
• Appropriate ways of making contact with authorities in a discipline
• Skills for showcasing one's own work
• An understanding of how to build a circle of friends and contacts both within and outside one's institution
• A perspective on long-term career planning

The mentor may:

• Involve the student in joint projects or get support for the student's research
• Introduce the student to top authorities in the field
• Nominate the student for awards or prizes
• Act as a reference for the student

A protege may benefit indirectly as well: because the mentor is respected, established and powerful, a protege frequently enjoys "reflected power" which confers special status and acceptance by others. Moreover, the protege may also gain a deeper sense of their "vocation" or career interest.

Benefits for the Mentor

• The satisfaction of helping in the development of another person who may carry on his or her own work
• Ideas for feedback about his or her own projects from a junior person who is eager to learn and commit to the project's success
• A network of former proteges who can collaborate on projects--thus increasing the mentor's power and visibility
• Becoming a part of an expanded network of colleagues

Benefits for the Institution

• Increased productivity and commitment, especially of students and faculty
• Help prevent attrition -- especially women, students of color and persons from other special population groups
• Encourage cooperation and cohesiveness for those involved in mentoring relationships
• Increased likelihood that students who graduate will feel that they have been given the skills to aid them to become successful.

From Academic Mentoring for Women Students and Faculty. A New Look at an Old Way to Get Ahead. Project on the Status and Education of Women, Association of American Colleges, 1818 R Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009, 202-387-1300.