On the Shoulders of Giants
The possibilities and pitfalls of mentorship
How Mentorship Can Be Life-Changing for People Living With HIV
"By having HIV and living with it for so long, I [am] able to support, encourage, and inspire somebody else."
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Jamie McCarthy / Getty An Artist Whose Mentors Are Scientists
Dianna Cohen, a visual artist and environmentalist, aims to raise awareness about pollution in the world's oceans.
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Jose Cabezas / AFP / Getty The Odyssey’s Millennia-Old Model of Mentorship
According to the classicist Gregory Nagy, Homer’s epic provides an early example of enlightened guidance that’s still relevant thousands of years later.
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Paul Morigi / Getty From Girl Scout to Girl Scouts' CEO
Anna Maria Chávez, the former leader of an organization she loved as a child, on the mentors who shaped her career
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Friendship That Helped Create 'Vagina Dispatches'
The filmmaker Mae Ryan and the data journalist Mona Chalabi say that their willingness to push and support each other was the key to creating their Emmy-nominated documentary.
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David Gray / Reuters The Quiet Mentor
The late Nashville Scene editor Jim Ridley made everyone around him better, and took little credit for himself.
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Jaime Saldarriaga / Reuters What Studying Conflict Resolution Teaches About Personal Relationships
Donna Hicks, a scholar at Harvard, says the lessons from her research on violence apply to interactions with family, friends, and mentees.
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Orlin Wagner / AP The Mascot All the Other Mascots Look Up To
For almost 30 years, Dan Meers has built a professional community founded on radical kindness as Kansas City’s KC Wolf.
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Mark Lennihan / AP Warby Parker's Co-Founder on Starting a Company From Scratch
Dave Gilboa says it’s important to find a mentor “who can tell you when you are being delusional.”
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Stephanie Keith / Reuters How Peer Mentorship Can Change Police Departments’ Cultures
The criminologist Geoffrey Alpert says that it’s not just the substance of constructive criticism that matters—it’s also whom that criticism comes from.
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Stephen Lovekin / Getty Soledad O’Brien on the Power of Showing Up
The former broadcaster compares mentorship to a good gym habit—it’s not just about working out today, but every day for years.
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Steven Senne / AP 'They All Have a Common Goal of Making Beauty'
To the ragtag groups of volunteers that help him create his artwork, the sculptor Patrick Dougherty is a boss, a mentor, and a humble peer.
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Courtesy of Boeing The Importance of Women Mentoring Other Women
Elizabeth Lund, a vice president at Boeing, reflects on the lessons she's learned and passed on during her career as an aeronautical engineer.
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Edward S. Curtis / Historical Picture Archive / ... Mentoring With a Time Horizon of Seven Generations
Jodi Gillette, formerly an adviser for Native American affairs under President Obama, on how her worldview is built into her career.
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Andrew Kelly / Reuters Building Mentorship Out of Trauma
The haunting things Bob Lang once saw as a firefighter have influenced the advice he now gives to young colleagues in his work as a lawyer.
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Courtesy of Define American What Mentorship Can Mean to Undocumented Immigrants
Yosimar Reyes, a poet and artist, reflects on the guidance the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas has given him.
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Matt Sayles / AP 'The Black Writing Community Is Very Small'
The writer Ashley C. Ford and her mentor, Roxane Gay, discuss the professional advice they’ve gotten and how to cope with criticism.
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Kimberly White / Getty / Shutterstock / Emily ... The David Carr Generation
More than a dozen mentees of the late journalist remember the lessons he imparted.
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Yuya Shino / Reuters The Dark Side of Networking
“If one person gets a leg up, that’s a leg down for whomever else is competing for those opportunities.”
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Larry Downing / Reuters Mentorship Without Hierarchy
The economists Darrick Hamilton and Sandy Darity met as student and adviser. Now, they see themselves as equals.
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Maxim Shemetov / Reuters What a Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Learned From Condoleezza Rice
Michael McFaul, who served under President Obama, on being a diplomat in an often hostile environment
