Mentoring Our Students | Faculty Commons

     John Walkup
     Emeritus, Texas Tech University
     Electrical and Computer Engineering

One of the joys of being a professor is the opportunities God provides to mentor students.

I have always believed that they are sitting in our classes looking for indications of who we are as people, as well as presuming that we are prepared to teach them an academic subject. They store this information until it is needed when they are looking for “safe people” (i.e. nonjudgmental and compassionate) to talk with about some academic or personal crisis.

In starting each semester’s first class with a brief indication of my personal faith in Christ, I was privately praying that God would provide opportunities to mentor my students using some of my own life experiences. Little did I know all the ways He would answer that prayer over my 27-year career.

My Own Undergraduate Struggles

My willingness to be involved in what could at times be confounding situations was, in many ways, driven by my own memories of going far away to college as an undergraduate, and having my own set of struggles wondering if I was at the right school and in the right major, etc. Other academic challenges in graduate school had convinced me that God really wanted me to consider becoming a professor.

Students frequently approach us when they are having problems in a course we are teaching. About as frequently they are having another source of stress (possibly unrelated but definitely something impacting their performance), whether in their family, a relationship, financial, etc.

I often found that some of my students were working 25-40 hours per week while carrying 12-15 semester hours. One of the first questions I asked was why they were working so many hours. Often the answer related to the pressure to maintain a certain lifestyle or appearance (e.g. substantial car payments), something I had not dealt with in my undergraduate years at Dartmouth, where scholarshipped students were not permitted to drive cars.

His Roommate Had Died

I once had a student come into my office and break down in tears while he shared with me that his roommate had died in a gun accident. I asked if I could pray for him, and did so right there and then. Subsequently I was able to help arrange some professional grief counseling for him. I recall him sharing with me, after he had turned in his final exam that he had really appreciated the help I had provided.

Often a colleague and I would talk with students over coffee. Sometimes they were struggling with whether or not to continue in the major, which has a well-earned reputation for its challenges. With some exceptions, most eventually made it through and graduated. I discovered it’s sometimes helpful to merely serve as a sounding board for our students as they vocalize their thinking processes. While this does take time, it also sends a powerful message that we care about them and are willing to rearrange our schedules to serve them.

One day one of our department’s international graduate students came to me very disturbed that his parents had arranged for him to marry a girl from his home country who he barely knew. His problem was that he had recently found a girlfriend in the U.S. and had doubts about honoring his parents’ wishes.

Attempting To Be A Mentor

We talked a lot about marriage and my belief that feelings of love flow out of our commitment to our spouse, a commitment which should grow over time. I’m afraid I don’t recall now how his dilemma was resolved. I’ve got to say, however, that attempting to be a mentor in situations such as this made me wonder if I was adequately prepared for the role of a mentor.

I now realize that such experiences really stretched my faith in Christ’s provision of wisdom when I most needed it. At times like those it was helpful to use hindsight in looking back on the Lord’s faithfulness to lead me to where I was, and His promise to continue to guide me step-by-step as I was seeking to mentor and encourage my students.