The Faculty Mentoring Committee has been actively engaged over the past year, diving into all things SAPA. Through a series of thoughtfully curated events, we’ve fostered meaningful discussions among colleagues about SAPA’s integration with our new strategic aims, while also creating opportunities to celebrate SAPA successes and share practical tips through our SAPA Salon series.

Reflecting on these initiatives, the Committee identified a key priority: enhancing support for mentoring pairs during the critical promotion and renewal processes. After extensive brainstorming, we developed a resource designed to strengthen these mentoring relationships—a set of reflective prompts. These prompts are intended to help pairs deepen their connection, while also providing a framework to explore the wide range of ways they can support each other during this pivotal time.

The prompts are entirely flexible and can be adapted to fit the unique dynamics of each mentoring pair. We encourage mentors and mentees to review the prompts together, select those that resonate, and tailor them to their specific needs. How the prompts are used will depend on factors like the timeline between pairing and promotion/renewal (Colleen shares her mentoring timeline for promotion/renewal, in her recent post), the mentee’s priorities, and the frequency in which the pair decides to meet. Whether you use the prompts as-is, modify them, or simply draw inspiration from them, we hope these prompts prove valuable in guiding and enriching your mentoring journey.

We would also love to hear from you – what is an insightful or particularly useful prompt or question you’ve been asked or have asked as part of your own mentoring journey?