The Heart of Mentorship

A fascinating and important understanding of the role relational mentoring can play in higher education

The mentor-mentee relationship is one of the most critical aspects of academic training. Mentors provide intellectual and personal support, information about career opportunities, and arrange financial assistance through research assistantships or fellowships. The initiators of The Heart of Mentorship, Emir Estrada, Veronica Montes, and Fatima Suarez have a few things in common that served as the main motivation to write a book on mentorship. First, all three are first-generation college students and children of immigrants from Mexico. Second, they all had an opportunity to be mentored by the same person, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, whose type of mentorship was instrumental in shaping their own
development as scholars and now as mentors.

Drawing on the collective mentoring experiences they and other mentees had with Hondagneu-Sotelo during their academic training, along with the reflections of esteemed senior scholars on their own mentoring practices, The Heart of Mentorship examines distinct areas of mentorship from the perspectives of both the mentor and the mentee. Contrary to the traditional “top-down” hierarchical model of mentorship in the academy, The Heart of Mentorship examines relational mentoring in higher education, offering intergenerational wisdom, strategies, and reflections from PhD scholars across the U.S., with a focus on first-generation Latinx graduate students, addressing both personal experiences and structural barriers through a model that is intellectually rigorous yet infused with reflexivity, passion, connection, equity, and transformative relationships. Essential reading for graduate students, faculty, administrators, and anyone committed to building more inclusive and empowering academic communities, The Heart of Mentorship provides a vital guide to navigating both the challenges and the possibilities of higher education.