Mentors
Each fellow candidate in the Cook Leadership Academy is paired with a community mentor for the academic year. The candidate and mentor work as a team, helping the candidate tap their potential and think about ways they can improve their leadership skills to best reach their goals. Mentors come from many sectors of the community including non-profit, business, and public backgrounds. Each is dedicated to supporting student learning by providing insights into our group of future community leaders.
“Prior to this mentorship over the last four years, I would have trembled at the thought of meeting with someone who has so much community respect and leadership. However, Kristin taught me that my fears and insecurities in this regard are just a reflection that I care about how I am perceived by others. She also reassured me that people in "higher up" positions are truly just like me at the core, and that recognizing power dynamics in a realistic way helps me to face these critical conversations with respect and humility, but also confidence and worth (since I know the value I bring to the conversation).”
—
Lydia, CLA Fellow
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Mentor Meeting Resources
Mentorship Handbook
We are excited to share fresh, updated mentor materials for you to use throughout the mentorship program.
Mentor Modules
Discussion Guide 1: Getting Acquainted & Goal Setting
The goal of this first session is for you to get acquainted with your mentor/mentee and to establish both goals and plans for communication and regular meetings going forward.
Discussion Guide 2: Defining and Identifying Leadership
Leadership involves a combination of strengths (who you are) and abilities (skills you’ve learned) applied to influence specific circumstances and contexts (actual behaviors and interactions). Conceptualizing leadership as behavior implies that leadership can be learned and taught. Your conceptualization of leadership is likely to affect the way you lead, so we’re going to spend some time developing that understanding.
Discussion Guide 3: Addressing Ethics in Leadership
Your previous meetings up to this point may have focused on the strengths and ideas that make you an effective leader, but it is just as important to understand the ethical dimensions of how you view leadership. The purpose of this meeting is to explore your understanding of ethics, and how you’ve encountered ethical (and unethical) leadership.
Discussion Guide 4: Choose Your Own Adventure!
For this session, look through Mentoring Discussion Guide 4 and decide which topic aligns with your development goals. Options include the following: 1) Handling Conflict, 2) Discussing Leadership Theories, 3) Leadership and Trust, and 4) Finding Common Ground.
You can also use this time to dive into more career-focused conversations or to discuss what the student is learning at CLA Self-Reflections or other CLA-related events.
Discussion Guide 5: Reflecting on Your Journey
If you’ve made it to this point, you’ve completed the CLA mentoring curriculum, and the academic year is quickly drawing to a close. As you prepare to conclude your mentoring partnership this year, we invite you to take some time to reflect on this experience and celebrate your growth over the past year.