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Educational Excellence

Promoting Mentoring

One of the goals of the International Educational Excellence Committee (EEC) is to “share strategies
that promote mentoring of all educators, with a focus on early-career educators.” To accomplish that
goal, the EEC developed several actions to be undertaken during this biennium. Ten tips will be offered
in each of the bi-monthly newsletters that will go to state organization EEC chairs. Blogs, articles, and
video snippets will suggest what it means to be a mentor. Research and books that focus on topics within
the EEC umbrella of programs and projects will be recommended—with one focus being on mentorship.
Personal stories from those who have had a mentor will be shared on YouTube and Facebook. And an
additional effort is to write an article for the Collegial Exchange on mentoring—the topic of this article!
Something that International President Dr.
Debra LeBlanc said during an EEC meeting
sparked the focus of this piece. She was talking
about the success of Delta Kappa Gamma and
stressed that, to continue as an international
organization, we must have vitality and relevance
and strive for sustainability. As an organization,
we can remain vital and relevant and sustainable
through mentoring.

Vitality
Vitality refers to something being lively and
animated and having the power to endure. These
are qualities we want for our Society as a whole—
Bubbles of Joy © Photograph by Carolyn Wert, PA; but they must also exist at the chapter level. That
Fall 2022 Art Gallery can only happen if the chapter has the vitality to
go on, which can only happen when the chapter grows—not only in numbers but also in strength. A
vital chapter is constantly reaching out into the education environment, seeking the very best educators,
and then mentoring them not only to be better at their craft but also to become better chapter members.
Mentoring is meant to help a person maximize her potential. The steps we take through mentoring
not only help the individual teacher reach that maximum potential but also help our chapters to be
sustainable. And, if chapters are sustainable, DKG becomes sustainable.
How a chapter goes about achieving vitality is where being lively and animated come into play. The
chapter develops a plan—a plan not only to bring in new members, especially early-career educators, but
also to mentor those new members. Some things a chapter can do to find those new members are to
• reach out to universities to develop partnerships that provide access to potential collegiate
members;
• use school contacts to identify early-career educators; and
• look outside the classroom for educators in business, the arts, school nursing, and so forth.
Once chapters have located potential members, its current members must go to work—inviting them
to meetings, sending notes of encouragement, providing resource materials, and inviting them to chapter,
state organization, and international meetings and programs. Offering teacher grants is a great way to
meet young educators who have little money and always need funds for classroom projects. Follow up
by asking them to attend a meeting to tell how they used their grant. The key here is that once a chapter
gets a prospect to a meeting, then the mentoring gets serious.

54 · Volume 89-4