Amid the many degrees, titles and accolades that professional scientists can attain, one of the most honored designations is an informal one: “mentor.” Many scientists and engineers cherish stories of life-changing guidance early in their careers from a senior professional—and, later in life, give back by mentoring young scientists in their turn.
Since 2002, the U.S. government has proclaimed January as “National Mentoring Month” in the United States. The monthlong campaign, a project spearheaded by the national mentoring partnership MENTOR, is designed to cast a light on the importance of mentoring relationships and for youth mentoring in particular.
The OSA Foundation is using the U.S. mentoring month as an opportunity to highlight OSA’s own large, global community of mentors and mentees. The Foundation has built an “Honor Your Mentor” webpage featuring tributes to individual mentors by members of the worldwide OSA community—“to honor great mentors and remind us all of the impact mentors can have on our careers and lives.”
Each day in January, starting tomorrow, on OPN Twitter (and other OSA social media), you will find an example of one of these mentoring tributes (such as the one below). We invite you to follow these post at @opnmagazine, and to explore other tributes (and perhaps post one of your own) at the OSA Foundation’s Honor Your Mentor site.
