A website for teachers who are blind or visually impaired.

Choosing a Mentor or Advisor

One of the most important decisions you will make relates to who will support you and guide you through the teacher education program. An advisor should be someone who will help you know the logistics of navigating a degree program such as registration dates and procedures. In addition, an advisor helps you make sound academic decisions about courses and practicum activities that match your professional goals and fit with the requirements of the university or college. 

A mentor, on the other hand, is often a less formal arrangement. Your academic advisor may be a mentor for you, but not necessarily.  While an academic advisor is paid to support you through the process of teacher education, a mentor is more likely to be a social or personal or professional connection. Many mentor relationships do not start out defined as such, instead they grow to allow someone who is knowledgeable and supportive to connect in a meaningful way to someone needing that support.  It is likely that during your lifetime you will be mentored by someone, and you will be the mentor for someone else. The relationship with a mentor is a special one that has potential to make a big difference in your professional life.

Below are some issues that you should consider when choosing a mentor or advisor.

  • Choose someone who is knowledgeable.  If you are relying on someone to support you through your academic and professional career, you need to trust that the person is knowledgeable about the variety of issues that will be of importance to you.  An academic advisor must, for example, know the procedures for dropping and adding a class if necessary.  He or she must know the procedures for requesting support from the office of disability services and be willing to help you through the procedures of obtaining the degree.  You will find that the most helpful advisors and mentors will also be knowledgeable about the subject you are studying. You will likely have many procedural questions, but you are also likely to have many questions related to your area of study. A mentor and/or advisor can be a big help in both of these areas.
  • Choose someone who is reliable.  You will want support from someone who is easily available and who answers emails and phone messages in a timely manner. This is especially important for academic advisors because you may need immediate responses about procedural questions. If your advisor is not available, he or she should be able to let you know who to call in his or her absence.
  • Choose someone who has a similar communication style to you.  In order to get the most out of the relationship between you and your advisor or mentor, it is important that you can communicate openly and freely with the person. Some people have a more robust style of communication and are very direct, while others are more subtle and assume their message is being understood. Figure out what kind of communicator you are and to kind of communication styles you respond best. Do you like everything laid out in a linear fashion? Do you prefer discussions that are more circular that spark different trains of thought and ideas? If at all possible, finding an advisor or mentor whose communication style is one to which you respond most favorably is best.
  • Choose someone who has had a common experience. This tip relates more to mentors than advisors. While not cruicial, if you seek an advisor who has gone through common experiences that you now face (e.g. same type of vision loss, same teaching environment, etc.) you will be likely to gain first hand strategies that directly relate to your own situation, and can also confide in this person when you have low moments.
  • Choose someone who will challenge you. This is probably the most important aspect to look for in an advisor and mentor. You are more likely to grow professionally in the art of teaching and personally if you work with someone who pushes you to step outside of your comfort zone. An advisor or mentor that challenges you will likely also help you to be creative in coming up with solutions to address glitches you encounter along your path to becoming a teacher. Creativity, problem-solving and perserverance that can all emerge from the experience will make you a dynamic teacher. That is not to say that your advisor or mentor cannot be compassionate- it is even better if they are both compassionate and hold high expectations!