Volunteering to help someone can lead to unexpected experiences. USASBE’s mentoring program gave me some enjoyable unexpected experiences over the past year.
Last April, I completed a personal and academic interest profile to volunteer as a mentor for a young and upcoming entrepreneurship professor. I had a good idea of the mentoring task, because I have volunteered as mentor for graduate students in UIC’s School of Urban Planning and Policy. Based on my UIC’s mentoring experience, I knew that the initial contact was important to establishing a good mentor-protégé relationship. Consequently, upon notification that John Bennett would be my protégé, I immediately contacted him via e-mail to schedule a time for a telephone conversation. Our first phone call lasted over an hour and our conversation flowed through several topics and found that we had many common interests
Common interests allowed us to connect with each other. The occurrence of the common interests is the result of both luck and the matching process. The matching process certainly found three key commonalities between us: We both sought an academic career after a professional career, we both worked for government, and we both had government contracting experience. Consequently, we had many interesting stories to share. John shared his government work experience from a federal perspective, and I shared my experience from a regional government perspective. During our first discussion, we rarely discussed our academic pursuits, aspirations, and accomplishments. Instead, I asked him why he chose to change his career path. John’s answer to my inquiry caused him to tell me about his family and his youth, his personal and professional choices over the past ten years, and what he really wants to do when he “grows up.” As I listened, John told me about his accomplishments and how those accomplishments lead him to his academic pursuit to seek a PhD and a career as a tenured professor. Simply stated, he had a lot to share with others, and he believes the academic career as the best way to share his experience, knowledge, and excitement about life. I not only enjoyed this conversation but also knew from my past mentoring experience that a personal connection was important to establishing a mentoring relationship.
At the end of our first conversation, we set a time for our second phone call within two weeks and identified topics to discuss which included the following: His resume, completing his PhD dissertation, getting papers published, joining academic organizations, discussing his job-seeking efforts and interviewing techniques. During the next several months we discussing all of the above in considerable detail, and John welcomed the discussion as he was still in the transition between a full-time military career and a full-time academic career; he had submitted his resignation to the military but did not have a tenured-track position. Instead, he had several adjunct teaching assignments – both in-class and online courses. He was certainly working hard to meet his daily and tactical professional- academic obligations and clearly welcomed a more strategic discussion of his chosen career path.
Last April, I completed a personal and academic interest profile to volunteer as a mentor for a young and upcoming entrepreneurship professor. I had a good idea of the mentoring task, because I have volunteered as mentor for graduate students in UIC’s School of Urban Planning and Policy. Based on my UIC’s mentoring experience, I knew that the initial contact was important to establishing a good mentor-protégé relationship. Consequently, upon notification that John Bennett would be my protégé, I immediately contacted him via e-mail to schedule a time for a telephone conversation. Our first phone call lasted over an hour and our conversation flowed through several topics and found that we had many common interests
Common interests allowed us to connect with each other. The occurrence of the common interests is the result of both luck and the matching process. The matching process certainly found three key commonalities between us: We both sought an academic career after a professional career, we both worked for government, and we both had government contracting experience. Consequently, we had many interesting stories to share. John shared his government work experience from a federal perspective, and I shared my experience from a regional government perspective. During our first discussion, we rarely discussed our academic pursuits, aspirations, and accomplishments. Instead, I asked him why he chose to change his career path. John’s answer to my inquiry caused him to tell me about his family and his youth, his personal and professional choices over the past ten years, and what he really wants to do when he “grows up.” As I listened, John told me about his accomplishments and how those accomplishments lead him to his academic pursuit to seek a PhD and a career as a tenured professor. Simply stated, he had a lot to share with others, and he believes the academic career as the best way to share his experience, knowledge, and excitement about life. I not only enjoyed this conversation but also knew from my past mentoring experience that a personal connection was important to establishing a mentoring relationship.
At the end of our first conversation, we set a time for our second phone call within two weeks and identified topics to discuss which included the following: His resume, completing his PhD dissertation, getting papers published, joining academic organizations, discussing his job-seeking efforts and interviewing techniques. During the next several months we discussing all of the above in considerable detail, and John welcomed the discussion as he was still in the transition between a full-time military career and a full-time academic career; he had submitted his resignation to the military but did not have a tenured-track position. Instead, he had several adjunct teaching assignments – both in-class and online courses. He was certainly working hard to meet his daily and tactical professional- academic obligations and clearly welcomed a more strategic discussion of his chosen career path.
Our mentor-protégé relationship was going very well until luck bounced it up to another level. During one of our conversations in early August, I told John that I was going to South Korea in October to present a paper at the 2nd Asian Entrepreneurship Conference in Seoul. He immediately reacted with excitement: “I’ll be teaching in China at that time!” Needless to say, our conversation took on an international perspective as this would be his first trip to Asia, and I would be making my fourth trip to Asia although I had yet to visit China. John said that he accepted a position to teach for an american university at Guangzhou University starting that month until early December. Subsequently, I amended my travel plans to Asia to include a five-day visit to Guangzhou. We meet every day and traveled around the Guangzhou area as shown in the photographs.
Our visit in China is best summarized in an e-mail John sent to me afterwards:
"Hi Gene!
Everything is well here in China. I am so glad to have had such a wonderful and enriching experience. I have really enjoyed China, Chinese culture, and . . . students; all which have been really great. . . .
I am so glad you visited! You should definitely come back to visit China with your daughter. The Guangzhou, China area is really great place to visit. Not only that but the Guangzhou area will continue to be teeming with opportunities in the future as China continues to grow stronger. Shanghai is another great place exploding with potential.
I would also recommend that you both visit Hong Kong and Macau! I loved Hong Kong too since it is Asian but also very British. I especially liked Macau. Macau is fantastic too since it has very deep Portuguese roots and influence since the 1400th century. Macau is especially interesting since it looks like a small southern European city in Asia! Macau is as scenic as New Orleans, Louisiana and has this feel to it as well."
During my Guangzhou visit, we also discussed the challenges of his international teaching experience of meeting both the expectations to deliver an American-style experiential-type education versus the Guangzhou University students’ preference for a lecture-based education.
Another lucky connection was my daughter who has been teaching in South Korea for three years but looking for another teaching job in Asia. She knew of Guangzhou University and expressed interest in teaching there. John provided a connection for my daughter via e-mail:
“Sounds great, if your daughter is interested in teaching English or other languages at GCU in Guangzhou, China. I know they are always looking for good instructors. Bill is one of the logistics managers for the foreign instructors at the School of Foreign Languages. He would be the man to talk to if you daughter may be interested in teaching for GCU. “
"Hi Gene!
Everything is well here in China. I am so glad to have had such a wonderful and enriching experience. I have really enjoyed China, Chinese culture, and . . . students; all which have been really great. . . .
I am so glad you visited! You should definitely come back to visit China with your daughter. The Guangzhou, China area is really great place to visit. Not only that but the Guangzhou area will continue to be teeming with opportunities in the future as China continues to grow stronger. Shanghai is another great place exploding with potential.
I would also recommend that you both visit Hong Kong and Macau! I loved Hong Kong too since it is Asian but also very British. I especially liked Macau. Macau is fantastic too since it has very deep Portuguese roots and influence since the 1400th century. Macau is especially interesting since it looks like a small southern European city in Asia! Macau is as scenic as New Orleans, Louisiana and has this feel to it as well."
During my Guangzhou visit, we also discussed the challenges of his international teaching experience of meeting both the expectations to deliver an American-style experiential-type education versus the Guangzhou University students’ preference for a lecture-based education.
Another lucky connection was my daughter who has been teaching in South Korea for three years but looking for another teaching job in Asia. She knew of Guangzhou University and expressed interest in teaching there. John provided a connection for my daughter via e-mail:
“Sounds great, if your daughter is interested in teaching English or other languages at GCU in Guangzhou, China. I know they are always looking for good instructors. Bill is one of the logistics managers for the foreign instructors at the School of Foreign Languages. He would be the man to talk to if you daughter may be interested in teaching for GCU. “
John did accept a tenure-track position upon his return to the U.S.:
"Gene!
I have excellent news to share with you! I have accepted the full time tenured track position with Saint Leo University as an Assistant Professor! I start January 2, 2015 so I will be moving to Corpus Christi, Texas!
I have secured an condo on the beautiful tropical resort style residence known as "Padre Island"!
Thank you for all of your excellent advice, mentorship, and guidance."
For some mentor-protégé relationships, the teaching position would end the relationship. However, we have remained in contact with each other, and John recently introduced me to one of his colleagues who will be attending ICSB’s Conference in Dubai. John said that we had similar interests and should meet in Dubai. Following is his e-mail introducing me to his colleague:
"Ken,
I would like to introduce you to Eugene Fregetto.
Dr. Fregetto is my mentor from USASBE and a great friend with many years of business and academic experience. I had the pleasure of meeting up with him while I was in China, where we had a great experience!
Gene, Ken is a experienced businessman and academic looking to broaden his horizons and seize upon teaching and consulting opportunities.
Since both of you will be attending the ICSB conference in the UAE, I thought this would be a great opportunity to introduce the both of you.
Regards
John"
I expect we will remain friends for years.
"Gene!
I have excellent news to share with you! I have accepted the full time tenured track position with Saint Leo University as an Assistant Professor! I start January 2, 2015 so I will be moving to Corpus Christi, Texas!
I have secured an condo on the beautiful tropical resort style residence known as "Padre Island"!
Thank you for all of your excellent advice, mentorship, and guidance."
For some mentor-protégé relationships, the teaching position would end the relationship. However, we have remained in contact with each other, and John recently introduced me to one of his colleagues who will be attending ICSB’s Conference in Dubai. John said that we had similar interests and should meet in Dubai. Following is his e-mail introducing me to his colleague:
"Ken,
I would like to introduce you to Eugene Fregetto.
Dr. Fregetto is my mentor from USASBE and a great friend with many years of business and academic experience. I had the pleasure of meeting up with him while I was in China, where we had a great experience!
Gene, Ken is a experienced businessman and academic looking to broaden his horizons and seize upon teaching and consulting opportunities.
Since both of you will be attending the ICSB conference in the UAE, I thought this would be a great opportunity to introduce the both of you.
Regards
John"
I expect we will remain friends for years.
