SCiLL mentorship provides one-on-one exchange
Faculty at the School of Civic Life and Leadership hope to personalize their mentees’ experiences at Carolina.
Cara Allen, a junior at Carolina majoring in political science, has had several mentors in her academic life. She frequently interacted one on one with the teachers in her 10-student homeschooling co-op in Wilmington, North Carolina. While earning her associate’s degree at Cape Fear Community College, she sought and found mentors.
Now at Carolina, Allen is participating in the School of Civic Life and Leadership’s mentoring program for students with a SCiLL minor. Allen was taking the Foundations in Civic Life and Leadership class when faculty member Michael Hawley told her about the program and offered to serve as her mentor. Faculty mentors meet with their mentees a few times each semester.
“It’s been great,” she said. “Usually, our conversation starts with something related to class and then continues to anything that we’re both interested in, which is anything at the intersection of philosophy, political theory and religion.”
A focus on intellectual and career interests
One goal of SCiLL’s mentoring program is to bring the small student-teacher ratios and personal academic relationships often found at small liberal arts colleges to a large research university.
“The idea is to get to know students a bit from the classes that they’re taking in SCiLL and find out what their intellectual and career interests are and then to match them with the faculty member who best fits those interests,” Hawley said.
Hawley still meets with a faculty member who mentored him as an undergraduate at Tufts University. “If I have questions about my career now, or I’m struggling with something, she’s one of the people I call. I want to pay that forward to students,” he said. When writing recommendation letters for students, “being a mentor allows you to speak to who a student is as a person, in addition to describing their academic performance.”
More philosophical perspective
Giuliano Rosas, a sophomore business major from Harrisburg, North Carolina, aspires to be a better leader and says that SCiLL is giving him the skills to do so. “For me, leadership is servant leadership — being able to give back to the community and use what you’ve learned to help others succeed,” he said. “The School of Civic Life and Leadership really fits that description.”
Rosas has had several mentors, both at Carolina and elsewhere, who focus on Rosas’ interest in business. But in the SCiLL mentoring program, Rosas is seeking “someone who can challenge me in different ways,” he said.
Danielle James, a SCiLL assistant professor and political theorist, is filling that role. Over lunch at the end of the spring semester, the pair discussed many topics. “It was a nice opportunity to talk with her about what I’ve got going on academically,” he said, including studying abroad this summer, followed by an internship.
It was helpful, Rosas explained, for him to get a perspective other than one that was focused solely on business. “Her perspective was more philosophical, in a sense, and it helped give me encouragement to continue pushing with my studies and doing my best,” he said.
For Allen, mentoring relationships have provided practical help and encouragement as well as intellectual exchange. Hawley suggested she apply for a prestigious fellowship at The Hudson Institute in Washington and wrote her a letter of recommendation.
“It’s a huge honor,” Allen said. “Professor Hawley encouraged me to pursue that opportunity and helped me get it. He assured me it would be something that I’d be interested in and enjoy. Without pressuring me, he helped me feel confident about it. And I’m very excited for the opportunity and grateful that it came out of our mentoring relationship.”
