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Mentors or Mirrors?

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Mentors photo for web

By Troy Ann Kasuboski, Director of Business Development

Who doesn’t admire someone with praises for the people that have made a difference in their life?  For many years, I admired those who had a mentor and claimed to have no such person in my life.  Those with fond mentor memories are often people very passionate about what they do for a living.

At a recent open house for a new CBRF and Memory Care Resource Center, I was delighted to see the familiar face of Dr. Susan McFadden, my professor of Adult Development and Aging during the college years.  I wasn’t alone as a number of the health care professionals there had the pleasure of her tutelage as well.

As a book author on many dementia related topics, Dr. McFadden shared with me her input of the benefit of certain architectural design elements within the memory care area, from the separate entry to the communal and music therapy spaces.

The biggest gem in this unexpected reunion was to hear from all the passionate people working there who had been in her classes as well.  These former students are those who not only look to make a difference in the lives of others, but in the eyes of many, truly are the difference.

Does a mentor create passionate professionals or is the mentor like the Wizard of Oz—merely  turning a mirror to the passion that resided within all along?

The passion stories are on the way—we’ll let you be the judge.