The lines in May Sarton’s poem, Innumerable Friend, express the essential philosophy behind the Mentoring Partnerships Program that has been operated by the Women’s Center at Florida International University for the past six years. The center is dedicated to providing a personalized learning experience that promotes the academic and professional success of FIU students.

The Mentoring Partnerships Program builds connections across racial and cultural boundaries, fosters a sense of belonging, and creates a community among participants, functions that are particularly valuable at a large university. As diverse as we are as an institution, we often do not consciously reach out to others of a difference race or culture. In the mentoring program, when students are matched with mentors that inform, advise, and inspire them to achieve their academic and career goals, the ‘invisible bridges’ that Sarton alludes are created between program participants. These are bridges that breathe life into the institutional value of diversity. Mentoring is a meaningful way to promote diversity and enhance abilities to assess cultures and to understand and value difference.

Mentor in Greek mythology acted as a surrogate father to Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, when Odysseus was off conquering Troy and making his epic journey back to the Greek isles. Mentor guided, educated, and protected Telemachus, introduced him to other leaders, and prepared him for adulthood. When the goddess Athena wanted to advise Telemachus, she took the form of Mentor and thereby imbued Mentor with her divine qualities.

The current group of mentors draws inspiration from this ancient classical model. FIU’s mentors are drawn from a range of cultural backgrounds and professional or academic fields, but they all possess advanced work and life experience so that they can instruct, counsel, guide, and facilitate social, intellectual, and career development among their equally diverse student protégés. Recruited from the Division of Student Affairs staff, the FIU Alumni Association, and the academic faculty, the mentors work with students in one-to-one relationships and also join in group networking activities and workshops to build a group identity and to share resources.

Gayle Bainbridge, past president of the FIU Alumni Association, Irma de Alonso, professor in the Department of Economics and Fellow of The Honors College, Marilyn Montgomery, associate professor in the Psychology Department, Beverly Dalrymple, director of the Center for Leadership Development and Civic Responsibility, and Lynda Raheem, assistant dean of the College of Business Administration, are representative of the accomplished and dedicated pool of mentors that volunteer their time and attention to student protégés year after year.

Outstanding mentors contribute to the success of the program, but there are several other components contributing to its success. The Women’s Center has also cultivated a ‘mentoring
partnership’ with the Office of Alumni Relations for the past several years that has sponsored group events and recruited FIU alumni. Students who take the initiative in seeking out their mentor’s advice and friendship are rarely disappointed. The development of a mentoring relationship is a gradual and progressive process that depends on multiple meetings for the level of trust and the quality of communication between mentor and protégé to deepen. Students are encouraged to attend the program’s group meetings, to introduce themselves to all the program participants, and to mentor each other. Students that seek out multiple mentors in this way increase the likelihood of meeting someone who matches their advising needs.

From the interpersonal to the intergroup level, the Mentoring Partnerships Program is designed to look out for the student participants’ best interests, developing their skills, talents, and abilities to achieve their personal and professional goals.