Since I was a small child, I have always been a nurturer, someone who helps others. I patiently listen to their concerns, let them express their feelings, and, when appropriate, help them look at ways to feel better or behave differently. In its simplest form, I think of mentoring as a process of nurturing others. For me, it is using who I am and what I know to foster the personal and professional growth of graduate students. This is what I find most fulfilling about being a professor-the opportunity to develop meaningful individual relationships with my students with the primary goal being their academic and career success and fulfillment.As I reflected on my almost 29-year tenure as a faculty member at Arizona State University, I realized that I have had the privilege of fostering the development of 50 doctoral graduates, as well as numerous master degree graduates. Currently, I am directing the dissertations of nine students. The students who enter our doctoral program in counseling psychology are amazing. They are unbelievably bright, articulate, and curious, and invariably kind-hearted. To be able to work with them is a privilege. I have never viewed being a teacher and mentor as a task or as "a job." Instead, I believe that these students have been gifts to me. As I have tried to enrich their lives and careers, they have enriched mine both personally and professionally. Mentoring is a reciprocal process, occurring in stages. Dr. Mary E. Stafford is a faculty member and internship coordinator in the School Psychology Program at University of Houston Clear Lake, where she is an Associate Professor. Dr. Stafford is editor of the International School Psychology Association’s (ISPA) newsletter, the World*Go*Round. She teaches courses in personality assessment, child psychopathology, counseling children, and biological basis of behavior. Her research interests focus on at-risk children (especially, on influences on resilience among youth, on the effects of mobility among school-age children, and on socioeconomic, cultural, and language issues related to children’s achievement and adjustment in schools), on practice issues in schools internationally, and on ethics.Dr. Stafford has a Ph.D. degree in Educational Psychology, with concentration in School Psychology, from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to coming to UHCL in 2005, she was the Training Director in the School Psychology Program in the Division of Psychology in Education at Arizona State University. In her early career, she worked with children in public school and residential treatment center for emotionally handicapped settings as teacher, counselor, diagnostician, and school principal.
