Advancing Our Communities Through Mentoring
by Stacy Phelps


Mentoring is one of the most inexpensive and effective strategies that can be used to increase the success of all Native students in school and in the workplace. Those who receive mentoring while in school will always remember how enriched their lives were as a result of the mentoring they received. Stereotypes label the study of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) as difficult or boring. Mentoring assists our students to reexamine their attitudes toward these fascinating areas and discover the best things about them.
The simple definition of a mentor is a trusted or experienced adviser. The term mentoring has become a buzzword in academia, the commercial world, and within the context of our individual communities. Good mentors typically become positive role models in our lives. However, every positive model is a good mentor. Societies, organizations and communities base their future existence upon mentoring. The very essence of norms, rules, practices or laws of human society are passed from generation to generation through mentor-based relationships.
Within our tribal or cultural context, our ceremonies, histories and everything else we value were passed verbally through a complex system of mentor-based relationships. No one is too young to serve as a mentor. Mentoring can exist between junior high and high school students, between high school and college students, between college or graduate students and faculty, and at the professional level between colleagues.
Mentoring in academia or the corporate world also ensures the survival and expansion of an organization. If knowledge is not shared and passed to the next generation, the history and understanding of that organization are lost. The passion mentors have to ignite and to excite someone else about what they do cannot just be read about. It cannot just be written down. It must be demonstrated.
Successful mentoring of American Indian students is based upon developing a trusting relationship. One effective strategy where mentoring can be applied is in relation to assisting students in understanding how a STEM degree can improve their communities. The success I have had in mentoring is generally related to guiding students in their understanding of how they can get a STEM degree and choose to return home and make a significant impact in their community. Establishing research opportunities or community service projects to help students apply their STEM knowledge and see the benefit of their work will remove any preconceived notions that STEM careers do not or cannot exist within their communities. Colleges and universities could improve the retention of minorities in STEM degree areas by including student mentoring as part of the criteria for the faculty tenure process.
It is an honor, privilege and responsibility for each of us to preserve our legacy and body of work by mentoring the next generation of STEM professionals. I believe that STEM professionals are our most critical asset and serve as the foundational building blocks of a nation’s public infrastructure. Mentoring future graduates in STEM is the most efficient and effective way to ensure the prosperity and advancement of our communities through the types of innovations and solutions that only STEM can provide.

Stacy Phelps, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, was recognized in 2009 with a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). He works for South Dakota’s GEAR UP and is working on his doctoral dissertation in adult and higher education at University of South Dakota.