All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College
All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College
All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College
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67<br />
because the <strong>College</strong> will have an impact on<br />
them, we must recognize them explicitly,<br />
take them seriously, and try to operate in<br />
ways which help rather than hinder them.<br />
Interpersonal competence is of primary<br />
importance in marriage, family life and in<br />
social relationships. It also plays a primary<br />
role in job success. Most persons quit, are<br />
fired, or are unhappy on the job because<br />
they can’t cooperate effectively with their<br />
fellow workers. Interpersonal competence<br />
calls for the ability to interpret the intentions<br />
and attitudes of others, to see situations<br />
from another person’s standpoint. It calls<br />
for the ability to improvise new roles<br />
and alternative lines of action in working<br />
relationships with others, and to help them<br />
do the same. It also involves self-confidence<br />
and the capacity to take the risks that<br />
spontaneity and shifting orientations require.<br />
The continuing relationships between<br />
students and Mentors which are part of<br />
contract planning and implementation<br />
continually tax the interpersonal<br />
competence of both parties. Dolores<br />
Guion will need such competence when<br />
she carries out her research project<br />
in cooperation with and under the<br />
supervision of Miss Jane Gary, Director,<br />
and Mr. Author Powlawski, Researcher,<br />
of the <strong>State</strong> Department of Health<br />
Services and Manpower, and she will need<br />
it to assure the continued cooperation of<br />
the Hudson Valley Community <strong>College</strong><br />
faculty … Emma Schmidt’s competence<br />
will be challenged when she visits agencies<br />
to learn about their practices in relation<br />
to Spanish-speaking clients, and when<br />
she interviews Human Services faculty<br />
members … Chuck Booth will be tested<br />
when he directs his own seminar in basic<br />
philosophy, seeks out guest lecturers, and<br />
works with his class.<br />
Increasing awareness lies at the heart of<br />
liberal education. In very general terms,<br />
history, economics, political science,<br />
anthropology, and sociology increase<br />
awareness of the diverse forces which<br />
underlie social changes. Poetry and the<br />
arts expand sensitivities and provide new<br />
views of the world. Literature, philosophy,<br />
psychology, and religious studies reveal the<br />
complexities of human nature and human<br />
relationships, and the motives and values<br />
held by individuals and cultures. Biology,<br />
chemistry, physics, astronomy, geology<br />
and ecology describe the shifting physical<br />
conditions which fundamentally determine<br />
our existence.<br />
Skills decline when unused, and specific<br />
pieces of information are forgotten or<br />
become outdated. However, once we move<br />
to more complex levels of perception<br />
and understanding, we no longer yield<br />
so readily to surface explanations and<br />
oversimplifications. Once we experience<br />
the reward of new sensitivities, we will not<br />
lightly forego them.<br />
Donald Wentworth’s union will not be<br />
the same for him after he finishes his<br />
first contract … Rockland County will<br />
not be the same for Bob Lenard after<br />
he completes his extensive readings<br />
and his travels through Spain, Italy and<br />
Greece, his reflective diaries, his papers<br />
… Manhattan, Albany, and Troy will be<br />
different places for Janet Lessinger as she<br />
pursues the Culture of Cities program<br />
and encounters the varied cultures of<br />
megalopolis … After reading Spinoza,<br />
Wittgenstein, Skinner, and Bertrand<br />
Russell, and learning to understand<br />
and use philosophical methods, Emma<br />
Schmidt’s approach to future work and<br />
study will be modified.<br />
Clarifying Purposes occurs when such<br />
questions are asked as “Who am I Who<br />
am I going to be Where am I, and Where<br />
am I going” Significant educational<br />
experiences raise such questions. Answers<br />
require judgments about the kind of life we<br />
want to lead and about vocational plans and<br />
aspirations. The work we pursue influences<br />
not only how much money we earn, but<br />
where we live, the friends we make, and<br />
the ways we spend our time. Furthermore,<br />
competence develops most effectively when<br />
powered by clear purposes.<br />
<strong>Empire</strong> <strong>State</strong>’s approach, which takes<br />
students’ purposes as the basis for<br />
educational planning and action, generates<br />
strong forces in this area. They begin to<br />
operate with the initial exploration of a<br />
Learning Center, the admissions application,<br />
and the Orientation Workshop. Each time a<br />
contract is planned and evaluated, questions<br />
of purpose and progress are raised.<br />
Wentworth and Guion know quite clearly<br />
where they are and where they want<br />
to go. Their contracts and programs of<br />
study focus directly upon their career<br />
concerns, providing pertinent information,<br />
appropriate skills, and broad perspectives<br />
… Bob Lenard has some strong interests<br />
which provide a basis for beginning<br />
study, but his intellectual interests are<br />
still uncertain. Not that he minds. On the<br />
contrary, he wants to take time to wander<br />
through diverse cultures and climates, to<br />
explore varied life styles and values of<br />
the past and present. His “reactive diary”<br />
continually applies his readings and travel<br />
experiences to his own past and present,<br />
to his own questions about who he is,<br />
and where he is going … Emma Schmidt<br />
brings two main purposes which guide her<br />
initial study – a social work career among<br />
Spanish-speaking peoples, and a desire<br />
to develop her interest in psychology,<br />
philosophy, and politics … Chuck Booth<br />
wants to start an experimental school, but<br />
he wants a broad foundation underneath<br />
that specific philosophy, and a study of<br />
three experimental colleges.<br />
As these contracts are carried out and<br />
evaluated, the initial purposes which<br />
motivated them will be modified. Sometimes<br />
those purposes will be sharpened and<br />
strengthened, sometimes they will veer off<br />
“Who am I Who am<br />
I going to be Where<br />
am I, and Where am<br />
I going” Significant<br />
educational experiences<br />
raise such questions.<br />
to a newly discovered and attractive angle,<br />
sometimes they will be traded entirely for<br />
a different vocational plan, a different life<br />
style, or a different range of interests.<br />
Becoming increasingly self-reliant means<br />
becoming emotionally and functionally<br />
independent; but most important, it<br />
means recognizing our interdependence.<br />
Emotional independence calls for the<br />
capacity to function without constant praise,<br />
encouragement, and emotional support.<br />
Functional independence calls for the<br />
suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring <strong>2011</strong>