Thread by @WesElyMD

1/ #Mentorship 🧵

This woman is my #mentor (pic w perm). Joan W Bennett. She’s in @theNASciences as geneticist & mycologist. Today we are at the Parthenon in Nashville TN where after 35 YEARS, she still provides me council…

bit.ly/3mWqDWN

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2/ Dr. Bennett taught me that mentorship is not a job w an endpoint. She assumed this role IN my life FOR life. Today we talked as much about parenting as science. We are in each other’s front row. This is the depth of a true mentor-mentee relationship.
 
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3/ Like any relationship, there must be chemistry & connection. If you don’t have that w a “mentor,” maybe you have the wrong person. Build a relationship not a business arrangement. It’s also NOT just a trajectory to promotion. #Mentorship is “whole” person care & development.

4/ A common pitfall occurs when the #mentee is passive & doesn’t exert energy TOWARDS the mentor. Remora (sucker) fish hitch a ride on sharks. In a sense, this is you two making an active decision to stay close & learn bidirectionally from each other.
 
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5/ Joan (my 1st mentor) taught me genetics. I identified mutants in the secondary pathway of aflatoxin biosynthesis. Long nights of UV light & plating aspergillus @Tulane paid off. She nurtured my love of #Science toward #Medicine. Our talents were different yet complementary.

6/ She is never shy about red ink verbally or in writing. She tells me straight when I’m wrong. No sugar coating. My job is to listen & not take things personally. Being soft hinders. She doesn’t have time to smooth the edges & I appreciate every unfiltered morsel I get from her.

7/ Mentor-mentee relationships like mine w Dr. B are MUCH more important than the original idea, experiment, or grant. This “human chemistry in action” breeds the next scientific discovery & creates a pallet of “love of the game” that becomes unstoppable & lives on for decades.

8/fin Mentee-Mentorship 🧵

Seek the right person more diligently than the right project. Make sure your mentor is someone who cares more about YOU than the #career, the #science, the #grant. Then, 35 years later, you’ll have a picture like this to #treasure!
 
#love #truth

3000 years ago, in Homer’s ancient #poem The Odyssey, Mentor was a friend of Ulysses Odysseus. When Odysseus left for 20 yrs to fight the Trojan War, he entrusted Mentor to advise & look over his infant son Telemachus…
 
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💥 So in #Greek #mythology, Mentor became the 1st mentor, to serve 7 roles: teacher, sponsor, advisor, agent, role model, coach & confidante.

📝 Dr. Martin Tobin (who testified #GeorgeFloyd trial) on roles of a mentor: bit.ly/2QETAKx

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