•  
  •  
 

Abstract

A mentor is defined as a trusted advisor. One usually thinks of mentoring in the context of one person helping another. However, an institution can have a mentor—its conscience, heart, soul, and history. Gamma Theta Upsilon is such an institution and Dr. O. Orland Maxfield is such a mentor. This paper outlines and recaps the ways this mentor has aided this international geographical honor society. Mentoring: one of the oldest forms of influence. One generally thinks that mentoring began with Homer telling about the King of Ithaca asking his fiend Mentor to look after his son Telemachus while he fought to win the Trojan War. Some believe the myth that you need a toga to be a mentor. Gone are the days of a prote´ ge´ sitting at the feet of a wise one. We now find African scholars describing that mentors/ mentoring were commonplace in Africa long before the ancient civilization. An ancient definition of mentoring is: a community of wisdom—to be passed on (first in an oral society by the spoken word and by example of action)—a role model; you and I know it today as an apprenticeship, internship, or supervised practice. Today the Webster dictionary defines mentor as a trusted counselor, a guide, a tutor, and a coach. The interesting item is “it is a sustained relationship—an enduring one—support, guidance, assistance for the long haul.” For other definitions one can access the Internet and find in excess of 200,000 items in reference to mentor/mentoring. A mentor is a peer resource, advisor, teacher, role model, and/or friend. A mentor provides attention and encourageModified from a paper presented at the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) annual meeting held in Philadelphia, November 16–19, 2002. The session was titled “NCGE Distinguished Mentor Award Session II” honoring Dr. O. Orland Maxfield, Emeritus Professor, University of Arkansas. November 18, 2002.

Download

Included in

Geography Commons

Share

COinS