Everyone agrees that mentoring is important at every phase of an academic career, but finding mentors and growing in mentoring relationships can be a challenge. In follow-up to and to expand upon Resource for Grad Student mentoring of Undergraduates (5/29/2012). I’ll be doing a series on finding and growing in mentoring relationships as an undergraduate and grad student. I’d welcome comments and stories.
Later in the series I’ll give a few thoughts on finding mentors as a graduate student, maintaining and growing in mentoring relationships, and mentoring others in turn. But for the moment, here are a few ideas on finding mentors while you’re in undergrad. In this post, I’ll give a few general suggestions. In the next post, I’ll turn to ways of finding Christian mentors in your field as an undergrad.
 1.   Pray for good mentors.
Years ago, I was looking for someone who could mentor me in creative writing. I was an English major, but my undergraduate school didn’t really focus on creative writing, so I didn’t know where to look. Feeling a bit lost, I prayed about it. Not too long after that, I went to a teaching job interview. The headmaster of the school noticed on my resume that I was interested in writing, and during the interview he mentioned that his wife was a poet. I later met her and started working on writing with her. Her advice transformed my style and convinced me to write poetry, something I’d always been afraid of. A decade later, I still write poetry, and I still learn incredible things from the friend God sent me when I prayed for a mentor.