MENTOR

It is one of the oldest human stories. And it lies at the heart of the liberal arts.

HEN ASKED ABOUT THEIR MENTORS RECENTLY, 30 accomplished alumni told almost precisely the same story or, rather, pieces of the same story, like fragments of an ancient but enduring manuscript. Ten of those pieces follow.

It is the story of a young person who, led mysteriously by a wise teacher, assaults the walls of the commonplace and wins entrance to a new world of thought.

The story binds us to our predecessors; on every continent people have told and lived variations. The term "mentor" is eponymous with a character in the Odyssey who advises Telemachus and "pushes him forward" on his search for his father, Odysseus. Aristotle and Alexander, Jesus and Peter, Merlin and Arthur, Wheelock and Occom, Cather and Jewett: mentors and students abound both in fiction and nonfiction and continue to be models for the liberal-arts experience.

At Dartmouth, the story follows a well-defined course:

It begins with a moment of need, when a student confronts a challenge, seeks answers to the deepest questions, or searches for a sense of self. Describing their early encounters with their mentors, many alumni used the phrase "I felt I was in the presence of...," as if they were confronting a divine spirit.

For many students a struggle ensues. A course seems more of an ordeal than a challenge; a critical, even openly discouraging professor more of an obstacle than a help. Yet the students who endure begin to see beyond the immediacy of coursework. The mentor eventually becomes an ally in the student's quest for knowledge, rewarding the student with the academic equivalent of a blessing: a top grade, a recommendation, even a bare comment that makes the student feel he has "got it," as Jerry Zaks '67 puts it. Mentor and student are now one.

Some students keep relics of their relationship with their mentor graded papers or tapes of lectures. But deeper still, students continue to take their mentor's thoughts, methods, or values to heart for years to come.

Moment of need, divine presence, struggle, breakthrough, alliance, union. This is alchemy, this process of mentoring. It is a transforming experiment that the College itself cannot control and yet must continue to attempt for the sake of its soul.