[foreword to the ATDP Mentor Handbook, c.2000]

For me, being a mentor at ATDP isn’t just about conducting tutorials in Study Labs. The Labs have always been a place to try and make a difference in a kid’s life as a student and as a person. I see each summer’s Study Lab as an opportunity for a beginning of sorts—the beginning of a relationship with a young person for whom learning, as well as discovering what it means to be human is an important thing.

So how do these relationships come to fruition in my experience as a mentor at ATDP over these last dozen or so years? What are the elements that, for me, constitute a successful mentoring relationship?

There is commitment, to begin with—both mine and my mentees. A commitment to engage in a relationship that may go beyond the temporal and structural boundaries of the Study Lab, and into the very fabric of the kid’s life experiences not just with school, but with with community and also with home and family. What this basically means is that ATDP’s 6-week session is potentially just a beginning; that the learning and discovery that starts here in the company of a mentor may continue on throughout the kid’s schoolyear, and even beyond.

There is passion—the student’s for whatever academic subject interests him or her, and mine for lighting a spark of imagination and intellectual excitement in a student. A mentor must feel strongly, yes passionately, about the idea of discovering and nurturing in a kid a love of learning and the life of the mind. Without this, the very notion of mentoring is without foundation.

And then there’s love. Should a mentor love his proteges, in order to be a good mentor? No, it’s not necessary. Should the protege be required to love the mentor? Certainly not. But if it’s there, it makes the job all that much easier, and definitely a pleasure. Because in the end, it speaks both to what it means to be a young person and searching, and to what it means for an adult who wishes to share what she knows about life and the world. And we know what really makes the world go ‘round, don’t we?

Does putting it all this way sound like something that’s too ‘deep’ or serious of a thing for a mere Study Lab at a six-week summer academic program? Sure it does. But that, dear ATDP Study Lab mentor, is what it’s really all about. One can’t lose sight of the fundamental things of caring, concern, commitment and yes, affection, that an adult can give to any young person, which is basically what is happening here. Each kid who comes to the ATDP and takes part in a Study Lab is a diamond in the rough, is your potential protege, and chances are, will be your lifelong friend.

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