Staff as Student Mentors

I was eighteen years old. I was in the first year of college, as what we now call, a first-gen student. While one roommate shared this status, the other was from a much richer background. The hallway of the dormitory seemed filled with graduates of prep schools throughout the land. The resident advisor, a senior, basically kept to himself. I was, as all first year students, trying to figure out how things worked in what I found to be a very strange environment.

The faculty were uniformly impressive, with behaviors that conveyed in their every act that they were scholarly and deeply schooled in their field. While they encouraged use of their office hours, I don’t recall that the gesture generated warm feelings in my mind. I can recall only one visit to a faculty office that in that first year, a response to being summoned there.

There was, however, a person who reached out during that time. She was, as I now remember, toward the end of her career. She was referred to as the “department secretary” in one of the units of my study. She always seemed to be present in those halls, a real contrast to the faculty who were not often in the offices.

I suppose I was first impressed that she merely seemed to notice me. I can’t recall exactly how she reached out. She might have noticed my perplexed state in an attempt to find a faculty office to turn in an assignment. It might have been my looking at notices on a bulletin board about jobs on campus.

An impressively tall woman for her generation, with silver hair and an erect status, she also had an engaging smile. When she offered me help, it seemed less the execution of an administrative duty and more an invitation to friendship.

So I saw her more frequently. She became an interpreter for the practices of the college. Through her, I learned how things worked. She told me about opportunities that I didn’t know about. She discerned my insecurities and bolstered me up when coursework was puzzling me. She emboldened me to knock on a faculty office door and actually engage with those who formerly intimidated me.

Thinking back on those times, I suspect this was her real calling, her personal mission. Of course, she seemed to serve well all the administrative needs of the department faculty, keeping track of progress to degree of students, and faculty duties of conduct of courses. But she was the socio-emotional rock of the group. She was beloved by the faculty and students alike.

I suspect little of the gifts of mentorship that she gave me were part of her job description. But she excelled at that part of her life. I perceived her to be my coach and advanced scout for the new terrain I was traversing.

It is common for alumni to remember the faculty who affected their ways of thinking and perceiving the world. They too have fundamental impact on the formation of the character of students. Later in my undergraduate years, I greatly benefited from such close ties with faculty. They did indeed shape how I think and do.

But I’m not sure whether I would have achieved those benefits without those early days meeting Elsie and receiving her wisdom. She was the first step that was necessary for me before traversing any later step of enjoying the benefits of higher education. I trust she knew that all along and that was her calling.