Now reflect on your own professional career. Who has made a difference in your life and in the decisions you have made? Most of us could pick out someone, perhaps more than one someone, who provided the guidance we needed at a particular time, or opened our eyes to things we had not considered before.

I know I'll never forget my first mentor. He was a college professor who introduced me to the possibilities of a career in parks and recreation. He was my advisor and my guiding light. To this day, when we meet at national conferences, he still asks about my job and my family.

When I entered the field as a new professional, my second mentor was my boss. He was responsible for my career shift to executive director of the Illinois Park and Recreation Association (IPRA).

Mentoring has a long and distinguished history, one that comes to us from Greek mythology. In Homer s Odyssey, Mentor was the teacher of Telemachus, the son of Odysseus. Mentor was more than a teacher; he was the union of both goal and path. He was wisdom personified.

Today, some 3, 500 years later, mentor relationships are still highly valued. In many professions, mentors are thought to enhance, if not ensure, the professional development and success of talented newcomers. Professionals in mid-career increasingly seek mentors in order to develop new levels of expertise and to advance in their profession.

What Is a Mentor?
Mentors use their greater expertise and practical wisdom to provide enrichment, inspire dreams, and encourage the pursuit of realistic goals. The most effective mentors perform a variety of services.

• They welcome newcomers into the profession and take a personal interest in their career development and well-being.

• They want to share their knowledge, materials, skills and experience with those they mentor.

• They offer support, challenge, patience and enthusiasm while they guide others to new levels of competence.

• They point the way and represent tangible evidence of what one can become.

• They expose the recipients of their mentoring to new ideas, perspectives and standards, and the values and norms of the profession.

• They are more expert in terms of knowledge, but see themselves as equal to those they mentor.

Do you think you have ever made a difference in the life of another person?
It is difficult to predict the combination of personal and professional qualities that attract individuals to one another in mentor relationships. Many mentors say there is no magic combination. Some individuals are attracted to opposites. Others are attracted to those with similar interests, styles and backgrounds.

How To Get Started
What should individuals who are considering a mentor relationship look for during the exploratory stages of getting to know one another and sharing expectations? Here are several important factors:

• degree of eagerness to have a mentor relationship;

• similarity in personal styles (e.g., gregarious, animated and spontaneous versus low-key, retiring and reflective);

• similarity of expected professional assignments and responsibilities;

8 Illinois Parks and Recreation

• similarity in preference for nurture versus autonomy when establishing expectations for support;

• academic preparation courses, majors, alma mater, and previous experience.

Can experienced professionals mentor to one another? Certainly they can, and with great success. Professionals in different aspects of parks and recreation may "cross over" to the other positions, and mentoring within the field helps this to become a smooth and beneficial transition.

Mentoring in Life
Mentoring occurs in other aspects of life besides the professional one. For example, it is especially important for teens to develop mentoring relationships with adults other than their parents. The Big Brothers/Big Sisters program surveyed parents of children and those who volunteered to mentor and found out the following:

• 85 percent of the respondents reported an increase in self-esteem in the persons being mentored;

• 63 percent reported an improvement in school grades;

• 56 percent said that relationships with families have improved;

• 69 percent said peer relationships were better;

• 66 percent reported more positive relationships between those being mentored and their teachers;

• 86 percent said youngsters in the program experienced increased exposure to cultural and educational services.

Everyone Benefits
Mentoring is not a one-way street. If it were only a means for aspiring young professionals to gain a career foothold or to get a boost up the career ladder, mentoring would not work. Common sense tells us that one-sided relationships do not work as well as reciprocal relationships. There must be an even exchange, an equitable give and take, if the relationship is to achieve its fullest potential.

Of course, our professionals with 20 or 30 years in the field have their experience to offer as a background for mentoring....They " were in the forefront over the years as Illinois emerged as the preeminent state in the park and recreation movement.

One of the strongest reasons for serving as a mentor is the desire to fulfill your own need to contribute to the growth, development and wish-fulfillment of an aspiring professional. The act of mentoring allows you to repay, at least in part, the intrinsic benefits you have derived from our profession.

While those with years of experience in the field are the most commonly considered as mentors, relative newcomers also have much to offer students. Often a geographic or educational diversity brings differences in experience which can be shared.

Of course, our professionals with 20 or 30 years in the field have their experience to offer as a background for mentoring. They have dealt with a variety of crises such as the tax cap. They have seen the face of the profession evolve to meet the changing needs of our customers. They have built small districts into large districts, and large districts into something unparalleled elsewhere in our country. They were in the forefront over the years as Illinois emerged as the preeminent state in the park and recreation movement.

Some of these leaders have already retired, but their knowledge need not be lost if they choose to become mentors to younger professionals. Respondents to the IPRA Membership Survey in 1996 expressed a need, a strong desire, for mentoring in all aspects of the park and recreation profession. IPRA has formed a special task force to develop a Mentor Program in Illinois. It will be chaired by Terry Schwartz, past president of IPRA and currendy a professor at Western Illinois University.

In seven to ten years, the next generation of professionals will be shouldering much of the responsibility for Illinois' superior park and recreation services. "Been there, done that" will be the parting words at many retirement ceremonies. Mentoring will help us retain the wealth of knowledge that has been gained and nourished in our state through the years. And it will strengthen the solid foundation on which our profession has been built. 

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