Mentorship Qualifications

For purposes of "The E-Mentorship Vision Network" Mentorship Qualifications vary. We will be using several mentorship resources. Qualifications to mentor 1st & 2nd year educators include:

• 4 years of experience as an educator of individuals with visual impairments and Masters Degree.
• 7-10 years experience as an educator of individuals with visual impairments and an undergraduate degree.
• Commitment to serve as a mentor for one year
• Solid communication skills
• Commitment to the field of visual impairments
• ACVREP certified (O&M instructors)

"The E-Mentorship Vision Network" strongly encourages cross-mentoring and 1st and 2nd year graduates of the UMass Boston graduate programs currently teaching are encouraged to participate in mentoring current graduate students in the UMass M.Ed. programs as they prepare to enter the field.

All mentors are encouraged to have a mentor themselves in "The E-Mentorship Vision Network," although this is not a requirement.

To sum up "The E-Mentorship Vision Network" Mentor Qualifications, our staff would like to borrow the below passage from the Texas School for the Blind Mentorship guidelines:

"Mentors are not superhuman. They are not expected to be experts in all areas. But they should be good teachers. Mentoring is a learning, as well as a teaching process"