Course Advice & Mentoring
Every student in their first year at Trinity
has a mentor, with whom he or she meets twice a semester (or sometimes more often)
to discuss academic progress and to offer mutual pastoral support. Mentors advise on
study routines, learning and study techniques, on how to cope with the
university, on assignment issues, essay structure and argument, on setting up
study groups, as well as on motivation and direction. The approach taken is
holistic, in that study is most effective when the student’s learning is
integrated with their personal philosophy and general goals. Talking one-on-one
with a senior member of staff helps students to clarify their thinking, their
academic passions, to work out how to get where they want to go, and be what they want to be.
Professional Mentors
The professional mentoring program aims to link senior Trinity students with members of the professions, often Trinity alumni, in a way that enhances the professional formation of students while strengthening ties between the College and the professional community. Students selected for professional mentoring will work closely with a mentor, observing and participating in aspects of professional life in a chosen area. Students in the last eighteen months of their degree program are eligible.
Trinity not only welcomes, but actively seeks, input from its community
of alumni. Students unsure of where their career is headed, with
motivational issues, or who purely wish to explore the vast range of
options open to them, are matched with alumni in their prospective
field. Although the mentor is not required to do more than offer advice
by e-mail or phone, or to meet once with the student, our mentors
usually find that they enjoy continued contact with such talented
students, and often relish the chance to return to the Trinity campus
for example to meet their mentee(s) over dinner at High Table. In
addition, Trinity welcomes alumni who choose to offer information
sessions to students soon to graduate in order to encourage them to
apply for internships with that company. Trinity also operates, and
welcomes further members to, its ongoing vacation work scheme.
Meetings are arranged by Dr Sally Dalton-Brown, the Head of Academic Programs; the overall program is coordinated by Dr Alan Watkinson, the Director of Advancement.