Plato had Socrates. Thoreau was advised by Emerson. Eleanor Roosevelt credited much of her life’s successes to the influence of her teacher and close friend Marie Souvestre. Early in her career Alice Walker found encouragement and advice from poet Muriel Rukeyser. And where would the Ninja Turtles be without the wisdom of Master Splinter?
Just like these people (and turtles) of history and literature, behind every successful archivist there is a mentor somewhere in their past. Oprah once said that “mentors are important, and I don’t think anybody makes it in this world without some form of mentorship.” And who among us would disagree with Oprah? Beginning this summer MARAC members can act on this sage advice by joining a new mentoring program.
MARAC mentoring is looking for mentors and mentees interested in networking, career development, and personal growth to participate when the program launches on July 1, 2019.
Modeled after a successful mentoring program created by the New England Archivists, the program will feature team-based mentoring with one or two mentors working with small cohorts of mentees. Cohorts will be organized by subject area, technical area, education or professional status. If you’re looking for a place where you can join a group of like-minded archivists (or aspiring archivists) and mentors who have the same experiences and interests, this is the program for you!
When you participate in MARAC mentoring, that means you’ll be benefitting from years of experience in the archival field, practical advice from others who has faced the same challenges as you, and a supportive group to give you perspective on your career— the personalized attention we all need to grow as archivists.
Mentoring groups will be meeting both in-person and online, so no matter where you live and work in the MARAC region you’ll be able to participate. Mentoring groups will work together over the course of a year, meeting about once a month.
The MARAC Mentoring Subcommittee will begin recruiting mentors and mentees during the Spring, look for our table at the upcoming Morgantown meeting and for future announcements for signup on the MARAC website. Application and program guidelines are available at https://www.marac.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=161:mentoring-program&catid=19:category.
Don’t go alone, be a part of our MARAC mentoring program!
