The mentor can serve as an important guide or reality-checker in introducing the prot g to the environment for which he or she is preparing. Finally, it is also reasonable to conclude that an essential component of serving as a mentor is role modeling. Although it is wrong to suggest that a prot g should become a clone to his or her mentor, mentors need to make themselves available as models, exposing both what they have done well, as well as what could have been done better. Mentoring is a way of individualizing a student's education by allowing or encouraging the student to connect with a college staff member who is experienced in a particular field or set of skills. Lester and Johnson's discussion continued with the following descriptions of what a mentor does and who mentors are.
Mentors are more than advisers and teachers.
This handbook is the primary map that faculty mentors in the psychology department use to guide their prot g s on the journeys they will take to develop their own academic, professional, and personal identities. It serves as a significant resource to mentors as they help their prot g s to discover, clarify, and refine their future options in a world that is filled with complicated and confusing choices.