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. A mentor also can provide support, and instruction to another person, due to their knowledge and expertise. Mentor often act as a trusted advisor and role model in careers and personal life guidance.
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 being to mentor the inexperienced presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama.[1]
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.
