Dear Friends,
November is almost here! That means time to offer a hearty welcome to all, meet new friends, and recap the summer and great adventures that you have experienced. Students of all ages are back at school, and we are in the midst of wrapping up 2023!
I am so excited to know that many of you are planning to be with us in Orlando virtually or in person. I am confident that we have planned an outstanding conference. Thank you to our staff who worked diligently to be creative and work through many challenges associated with our visit to Orlando this year, and to accommodate you, our members, so that your participation could be possible. We listened to your concerns and responded. Thank you for your patience, suggestions,and dedication to NCFR—MEMBERS MATTER!
Fall is a very special time of the year as we prepare for holidays and vacations. New research activities and new students to mentor provide opportunities for growth and development with excitement, anxiety, and energy directed to becoming the best you that you can be. Our annual conference is coming soon.
Mentoring is an important activity in which to engage and to take full advantage. Success requires commitment from you and being willing to listen to the great guidance that you will receive. Pay attention to what is said and how to grow from the feedback. Wise counsel has saved many of us from ourselves and from the woes of higher education. Careers have been advanced based on the great pearls of wisdom that have been shared through the years at our conferences. Once you are open to knowing that, there is much to learn beyond the degrees that you may have just received. Congratulations —your next steps to knowing and learning are just beginning to take shape. The mentoring program that NCFR sponsors is a good one because you have made it so. Thank you if you have participated. It means a lot to those that you have served.
You will find many great steps to take on this journey. You will go to the next place on your agenda to see what is to be offered,No agenda? Get one, or make one, so that you know where you want to go on your professional journey and what your future holds. If you don’t know where you want to go, you will not know if you have arrived.
Do not be afraid to ask questions about your interests. NCFR began a formal mentoring program several years ago. If you have not volunteered to help someone, take the time to grace a colleague with your presence and share the wisdom that you have gained over your career. One thing I know for sure is that someone helped me to grow and define what the responsibilities are in our field. Grant writing, developing, and leading a study abroad program, traveling internationally, presenting workshops, and talks, all came from colleagues that I met on the way to wonderful places! These activities will change your life and the lives of your family members—let me know when this happens for you! What you have yet to learn could make a world of difference in how you might live your life tomorrow and beyond.
Commit to passing along your story to junior scholars. As professors, we sometimes have given the impression that we were always where we are. We have had our own experiences in the field, held other jobs, and have experienced a lifetime of choices, opportunities and lessons learned. If the stories are not told, nothing is passed along. Your students would be impressed to know about your most exciting trips abroad or your favorite number two job outside of what you share in your classes. Tell them about your decision to attend graduate school and what you did in your “gap” year. I promise that they will be shocked and awed!
Undergraduates are often intrigued by the facts that you share with them outside of the textbook activities that you may assign to them. For those who have earned tenure, written grants, published papers and books, given conference presentations: share what it takes with your students, or better yet, how you became ABD (All but Dissertation), and what it took to make it the rest of the way. Yes, I know that could have been some time ago, but your students will be less likely to give up if they know that the struggles that you had were part of a larger, better journey.
It was part of the journey upon which they embarked. There may be future professors sitting in your classes today. Renowned gospel singer Mahalia Jackson is known for the song “How I Got Over.” She states that her soul looks back and “wonders” how she made it through life and made it through. I know that we wonder similarly on some of those days as well. Let your students know what keeps you in higher education and why you will not give up no matter what! They will be grateful.
Our lives are enriched by sharing with others and we are similarly enriched by them. We are given gifts that we can share to spread that which is deemed good. Providing comfort for our families is a common practice in our society and we benefit from the communities of which we are a part. Loved ones that are lost and friends who are no longer with us serve as reminders to be kind to each other; further, do not put things off that you can do today until tomorrow. Each day is not promised, nor do you know what it will bring. Live a life without regrets so that your mind can be free and clear to be the true change agent that you want to see.
Walk joyfully along the path that you have helped to carve out. Share the gladness that only you can because you are you. Spend more time seeking ways to serve others and making your days count. I think you will be pleased that you accomplished as much as you could while you could. Send a note when you can, particularly when you think of someone. Those who helped you on the days that you needed it, be grateful and let them know how much you appreciated it. Relationships are made just for that. Appreciate each day that you are given and use it wisely. Each one is precious and priceless.
When you have reached the last days of your career, think about the lives that you have touched and the differences that you have made in positive ways. Welcome to the fall season and I look forward to the best that is yet to come.
