The Society for Technical Communication's (STC) Emerging Mentor Board 

1. STC’s Emerging Mentor Board
Sally Henschel, Ph.D., Midwestern State University
Pam Estes Brewer, Ph.D., Mercer University
Lola Isijola, Columbus, OH
Leadership Day
Technical Communication Summit ’15
STC’s 62nd Annual Conference
Columbus, OH
June 21, 2015
#stc15 #stc15leaders

2. Agenda
 Mentor Board history
 Mentor Board mission
 Mentorships—past and present
 Creating a Mentor Board profile
 Mentorship activities
 Contact information
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3. Mentor Board
3
The STC Mentor Board is where professionals connect to
establish mentor/mentee relationships that
foster personal and professional growth and
development. Serving as a mentor or becoming a
mentee can help you direct your future, expand your
professional network, gain knowledge and perspective
on the workplace, and deliver tremendous personal
satisfaction.

4. Cindy Pao. Mentor, technical documentation
specialist
Anna Lerew-Phillips. Mentee, graduate student
Storm Stuart. Mentee, undergraduate student.
Mentors, Frances Gambino and Diane Gaskill
Mentorships: past
4

5. A mentee’s profile
Lola Isijola, Columbus, OH
Mentorships: future
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6. Accessing the STC Mentor Board
6http://www.stc.org/

7. 7
creating
a profile

8. creating
a profile
8

9. creating
a profile
9
You can make your account “inactive”
until you complete your profile and are
ready to participate.

10. mentee
search
10

11. mentor
search
11

12. contact
request
12

13. Mentor Board activities
13
Contribute co-authored content to the Technical
Communication Body of Knowledge (TC-BOK).
The TC-BOK is an online repository of knowledge in
the profession. But since the profession is always
changing, so is the BOK. Together, you can choose an
unfinished area of the TC-BOK and develop some
content for it, a good opportunity to work together –
and learn something in the process.

14. Mentor TC-BOK expectations
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 Meet with student mentee to establish schedules
and expectations.
 Mentor the student during his or her research
process, and provide the student any needed
advice to adequately research and cover the
topic.
 Review the student’s topic drafts and make
suggestions for improvement.

15. Additional mentorship activities
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Share current projects. Show each other what you’re
working on, and critique and discuss your
approaches to the projects.
Talk about professional development and training.
What options are available through STC for
professional development? Would going back to
school be a good idea?
Look at the job market together – it’s a great way to
learn about the current state of the profession.

16. Additional mentorship activities
16
.
Start a mentor-mentee book club. Read a book on
technical communication and meet to tell each other
what you thought
Attend an STC webinar together. This could be a good
opportunity for both of you to learn something new!
Go to an STC chapter meeting together and meet some
new technical communicators!

17. 17
Get more involved in STC. Join a SIG together
and ask if they have any work that needs to be
done. (They will say yes!)
Finally...

18. Contact
18
Sally Henschel, Ph.D.
sally.henschel@mwsu.edu
Pam Estes Brewer, Ph.D.
brewer_pe@mercer.edu
Lola Isijola
STC Mentor Board
http://www.stc.org/education/1414-mentor-board
STC Academic SIG
http://stc-academic.org/