In our fellowship manual, we define mentoring as providing guidance to the fellow in determining how the fellowship can enhance leadership and career objectives. While this may involve working on technical skills, it may also include less tangible areas of professional growth, such as helping the fellow to become more culturally, politically, and organizationally aware and sensitive; helping him or her to identify key players and resources in the field; etc.

However, there are certainly as many ways to define mentoring as there are mentoring relationships. Here are some thoughts from a variety of sources:

Mentoring is the "deliberate pairing of a more skilled or experienced person with a lesser skilled or experienced one, with the agreed-upon goal of having the lesser skilled person grow and develop specific competencies."

- From Beyond the Myths and Magic of Mentoring by Margo Murray

Mentoring is "helping someone else learn something that he or she would have learned less well, more slowly, or not at all if left alone."

- From Managers as Mentors by Chip Bell

"A mentor is someone who is active in the field, serves as a role model, walks the walk, listens, asks good questions, shows concern, and has a serious interest in the fellow -- including his or her short- and long-term goals."

- A group of Population and Population Leadership Fellows

"Mentoring is a process of guiding and even teaching younger professionals to help them develop their professional skills in a way that will allow them to go where they want to in their careers."

- Population Fellow

"Mentoring is an active and supportive relationship that promotes professional development through a variety of formal (training) and informal (feedback) mechanisms."

- Population Fellow

"Mentoring is taking an active interest in a junior person's professional development and personal well-being."

- Population Fellow

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