Dr. Caroline Simon, associate professor of philosophy and chair of the department at Hope College, is leading a three-year project to develop models for mentoring new faculty at Christian colleges and universities.
The "Mentoring Models Initiative" is funded
through a $109,000 grant awarded through the Lilly Fellows
Program in Humanities and the Arts, a national network of
more than 60 church-related colleges and universities
interested in exploring Christian understandings of the
nature of the academic vocation.
The network's projects include supporting
mentoring programs through which colleges and universities
help their junior faculty members understand their
institution's approach to teaching and scholarship in a
church-related liberal arts setting. The initiative Simon
is leading will survey the experiences of the 12
institutions that have run such network-funded programs, and
will ultimately produce a book that others can use to craft
similar programs of their own.
Simon has directed one part of Hope College's
mentoring program for the past two years. In 1996, she also
directed the network's first Summer Institute, which
provided an opportunity for faculty participants from around
the country to consider how Christian faith can inform
higher education. She has been a member of the Hope faculty
since 1988.
This summer, she will gather representatives of
the 12 schools that have held Lilly Mentoring Programs to
share what they have learned through designing and
implementing them. From the initial meeting and subsequent
discussions she will lead development of a book that she
hopes to complete in 2002.
Established in 1991, the Lilly Fellows Program in
Humanities and the Arts is based at Christ College of
Valparaiso University in Indiana. The network receives
major funding support from Lilly Endowment Inc. of
Indianapolis, Ind.
In addition to Hope, the institutions that have
held Mentoring Programs since the 1996-97 school year are:
Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn.; St. Olaf College in
Northfield, Minn.; Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash.;
Berea College in Kentucky; Midland Lutheran College in
Freemont, Neb.; Abiline Christian University in Texas;
Bethune Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Fla.; the
University of Notre Dame in Indiana; the University of the
Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas; the University of
Scranton in Pennsylvania; and Loyola Marymount in Los
Angeles, Calif.