Mentorship and the Value of Support

When Jacob Dawson, an associate teaching professor in the English department, was first hired as a lecturer in 2014, he found the onboarding lacking. He recalls receiving “a zip file that had the essay the course was based on. That was it.” He does not remember receiving lesson plans, assignments, or lecture notes to use. Having little knowledge about the university or the English department faculty, Dawson struggled at first to adapt. He recognized the need for a solution, so he developed what has now become a successful program that provides ongoing mentorship for instructors who teach writing courses.

When he started this faculty mentorship program, he intended it to be only an onboarding program that would familiarize new faculty with their course materials and contacts in the English department. “We’re folding you into the community,” said Dawson, describing the program, “so you don’t feel like an outsider working in, but you’re automatically a part of the tapestry of, the department.” Such support-focused thinking made the ongoing mentorship program a natural next step. Not only would mentors be vital contacts for onboarding employees, but they could also help these new faculty adjust beyond onboarding. Dawson developed the mentor role as someone whom new faculty members could go to for information and advice or even who, having observed their work over their first semester at Iowa State, could help write new faculty members’ annual review.

Nowadays, the mentorship program is well established in the English department, and the mentor role is assumed by faculty who volunteer to help. Most of the time, faculty members approach Dawson to volunteer to help with mentorship, but when there are no volunteers to choose from, he puts out a call for potential mentors. “And what’s great is we always have people who answer that call.… People are always like, ‘Oh, of course, I’ll jump in and help.’”

This community-based mentality has also resulted in the creation of teaching labs, small-scale lectures and peer-review workshops, focused on a single topic to help faculty understand new and emerging technologies or national changes in education. Dawson said that the teaching labs give “term faculty [nontenured professors] an opportunity to serve their department by helping us solve a specific problem that we’re encountering.”

Overall, Dawson sums up the mentality that led to the mentorship program and teaching labs with one statement: “You’re not alone.” He believes that the best way to improve is to engage with your community and accept support from those around you, especially in the workplace.

Jacob Dawson can be found teaching English 1500, Critical Thinking and Communication; English 2500, Written, Oral, Visual, and Electronic Composition; and English 3020, Business Communication.