Mentor

A mentor is a person who acts as a wise counsellor and guide to a younger or more inexperienced person, generally on an informal, one-to-one basis. Mentors can be found in most areas of life, but are most beneficial where the mentor helps his or her pupil to a more Godly or spiritual life. Mentors are also found in academia, politics and other areas of life. In the business world, "mentoring", where an experienced business person takes a more junior, but promising, employee under his or her wing, is increasingly a recognised and formalised practice.

Rarely, the junior partner in a relationship can be the mentor. Such a case is the appointment of Senator Joseph Biden as the Democratic Party vice-presidential candidate, his role clearly^{[Who says?]} being to mentor the inexperienced presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama.

The word 'mentor' derives from a character in Homer's Odyssey: the original Mentor was a wise old man who tutored Telemachus during Odysseus' long absence.

Mentor is also a city of 50,000 in the North Eastern Ohio suburb of Cleveland.