Mentoring Makes All the Difference

Franklin & Marshall is treating November as a month of thanks—thanking the thousands of alumni, parents and friends who are loyal supporters of the College, as well as all our colleagues on campus who help F&M offer an extraordinary undergraduate education. As part of that effort, we are inviting alumni of all generations to share their stories about how faculty or staff at F&M provided a moment of wisdom, a lifelong example or an opportunity to feel truly believed in.

As I hear these wonderful stories, I find myself reflecting on those professors and other educators at Georgetown University, where I went to college, who still live in my sensibility today—informing the judgments I make and giving me the words I use to provide insight to my students. Important among these was Father Tim Healy, who was Georgetown’s president and also taught me twice in his role as an English professor. Father Healy was a deeply learned scholar of John Donne’s poetry who embodied the highest standards of intellectual honesty and was passionate about the undergraduate experience. He took his students seriously. The respect that he showed for us modeled for me how I should treat my students when I became a teacher.

Another of my mentors, Bill Stott, taught me a different but equally valuable lesson. He had a very blunt way of giving responses to students, but that honesty was a gift to us, even if we were occasionally on the receiving end of pointed words. Once, when I went to discuss an area of the university that I thought needed to improve, Bill looked me in the eye and said, “If you’re a big enough person to complain about it, why don’t you go and talk directly to the person responsible instead of asking me to do it?” His unflinching advice helped me to realize that I had to be more positive and proactive about shaping change and not just somebody who talked about it.

When I became an educator, again and again I found myself quoting Father Healy or Dean Stott, and I came to realize how much of education is essentially the sharing of knowledge or sensibility or experience from generation to generation to bring out the best in today’s students. It’s fun now at F&M to see so many faculty who make powerful impacts on our students. For instance, I recently talked with Brooke Rubin ’12 about her work with Professor of Psychology Michael Penn around the notion of moral shame—a very complex concept. Her ability to synthesize for me Dr. Penn’s insights and her own questions to help advance the research is a prime example of the intellectual give-and-take and the mutual respect that you see at the highest level of undergraduate learning.

I am also inspired by Mona Lotfipour ’12, whose personal experiences led her to suggest that F&M students partner with working families in Lancaster to help them obtain the tax credits to which they are entitled. The educational potential of the issue was so rich that Professor of Government, Associate Dean of the College and Director of the Ware Institute for Civic Engagement Susan Dicklitch worked with Mona to build a course around the topic. In that class last semester, students helped roughly 200 low-income families generate more than $600,000 in tax credits collectively. I doubt there are many places where an accomplished professor would design a course around the suggestion of a student. F&M is that kind of place, and the benefits for Mona and all who took the class will be lifelong.

I am reminded of something that Father Healy once wrote that has always stayed with me: “The young dream, the old teach, and in that mystery is created a tomorrow that we who are older will never know, but will have helped to shape through the minds and hearts of our students.”