Leonard Tow ’50 This fall, Brooklyn College President Michelle J. Anderson stood at the front of a buzzing lecture hall to welcome an audience of students and faculty, mentee and mentor pairs, about to embark upon a transformational experience. First launched in fall 2022, the Tow Mentorship Initiative includes the Tow Mentoring and Research Program, the Tow Senior Faculty Mentors Program, the Tow Mentor-in-Residence Program, and Tow Faculty Awards. The multifaceted approach is designed to weave a culture of mentorship into the college’s DNA. It builds upon the strong history of mentorship established by the Mellon Transfer Research Program. Leonard Tow ’50 with Brooklyn College President Michelle J. Anderson Tow Foundation founder and chair Leonard Tow ’50 sees the Mentoring and Research Program, in which faculty members mentor students on their own research projects, as the jewel in the crown of this comprehensive initiative. Faculty guide students in becoming researchers of their own, and students get the experience and enormous satisfaction of learning how to conduct independent and meaningful research on cutting-edge questions across the disciplines. Faculty/student mentorships also support students in applying for prestigious internships, fellowships, grants, and advanced degrees. For example, psychology and biology major Fatima Aftab, whose research mentor was Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Brooklyn College Cancer Center Maria Contel, completed an internship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Research Institute in Boston. Associate Professor of Anthropology Naomi Schiller mentored Lily Bello, who traveled to India on a Fulbright scholarship. Haritha Lakshmanan, a physics major in the college’s Coordinated B.A.-M.D. Program who was mentored by physics Professor Mim Lal Nakarmi, was able to study at Princeton University in a summer program and then travel abroad to study at Cambridge University in England. Class valedictorian and Tow mentee Chaim Janani ’23 was selected as a City University of New York Jonas Salk Scholar, one of CUNY’s most prestigious awards. Tammy Lewis, the director of the Tow Mentorship Initiative says students gain other benefits from the one-on-one pairings, such as getting a taste of a discipline outside their field. Last spring, Daniel Campos, professor of philosophy, worked with English major Edna Adan. He says the idea was for Adan to help develop a paper he was working on while Adan immersed herself in Native American philosophy and literature to see what interested her. “What’s exciting about Edna is that she is not a philosophy student,” he says. “The collaboration from the beginning was interdisciplinary.” For her part, working with a mentor is what Adan says helped ward off the isolation that often comes with doing research. “I was accountable to Professor Campos, my research cohort group, and Professor Lewis,” says Adan. With people in her corner who had high expectations of her, “I felt supported, not alone,” she says. The senior now plans to earn a Ph.D. and become a professor. Mentorship relationships often have lasting impact well beyond college. Leonard Tow still speaks highly of the economics professor he had in college. At the 2022 Brooklyn College Commencement, Tow described how his mentor “took me under her wing and introduced me to a life I never knew existed, then pushed me to pursue it.” The first in his family and among his friends to earn a college degree, Tow credits his mentor with seeing him through a challenging time in graduate school. He went on to build a notable career in telecommunications. On September 8, 2023, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (center) joined Brooklyn College President Michelle J. Anderson (third from left), Tammy Lewis (third from right), and mentor/mentee pairs on campus to discuss the Tow Mentorship Initiative. The Tow Mentoring initiative benefits more than students. The Tow Senior Faculty Mentors Program helps junior faculty members to succeed in their academic careers as teachers and scholars, and it greatly enriches their ability to mentor students. Biology Professor Peter Lipke and Professor of Physics Sophia Suarez are themselves the very models of a successful mentoring relationship that has lasted decades. It began when Suarez was a student at Hunter College (CUNY), where Lipke once taught. “I almost don’t want to say how long we’ve known each other,” says Suarez, laughing. “The location changed, but in spite of where I have been careerwise, I still communicate with Peter. He still reads my narrative statements [for the grant applications I write] when I need him to.” They both believe that the Tow Senior Faculty Mentors Program is crucial for a mentorship culture to thrive. “Happy faculty make happy students.” That is Lipke’s way of explaining how peer mentorship also benefits students. He and Suarez are part of a senior faculty cohort working with chairs, deans, and other colleagues, guiding junior faculty in their academic careers, including counseling them on how to succeed on the tenure track and obtain resources to enhance their pedagogy and research. Suarez says that in pay-it-forward fashion, faculty mentors teach peers how to mentor each other as well as students. Mentor and Associate Professor in Biology Tony Wilson with mentee Dilfuza Kurbanova. Their research focuses on recombinant DNA cloning of seahorse immunoglobulin. “We tend to think, ‘Oh, mentoring is this nebulous thing.’ You can know how to mentor to some extent once you become faculty, but there are best practices,” says Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, dean of the School of Visual, Media, and Performing Arts. These best practices include being able to identify students’ potential, while at the same time allowing students enough time and space to reveal what they are capable of before deciding on next steps. Jensen-Moulton says that being at the ready to offer current and prospective faculty guidance wherever students are in their journeys is another necessary skill. The work that Jensen-Moulton and Lipke have done in helping to create a successful peer mentoring program did not go unnoticed. They were each honored with a Tow Faculty Award for excellence in mentoring—another part of the overall initiative that acknowledges outstanding faculty mentors. Tammy Lewis says that guiding students in their academic careers is only a part of the larger mentoring initiative, and that one mentor is not enough. Alongside academic mentoring, Lewis and her colleagues believe that students need people who will boost their confidence, have their backs, and inspire them to continue. Students need this support to prepare applications for awards and scholarships. Tanya Pollard, professor of English, works with rising juniors to teach them the nuts and bolts of fellowship and application writing. And there is a catch—students must apply for a grant or fellowship. “This summer, I had an exciting group of science and social science majors,” Pollard says, “who are at a stage where they need to not only think about next steps but take them.” And much like Leonard Tow’s mentor of long ago, Pollard shows students possibilities they might not have considered, such as ambitious grants and internships. Her mantra is, “Why not you? Someone has to apply!” Her goal is to help students believe in themselves. Mentor and Assistant Professor in Health and Nutrition Sciences Kiyoka Koizumi with mentee Rhema Mills. Their research looks at similarities in maternal mortality and midwifery between Black women and indigenous Ecuadorians. Along with professional coaching and confidence-building, the Tow Mentorship Initiative also brings high-profile scholars and leaders from various fields to campus as part of the Mentor-in-Residence Program. In fall 2022, the college hosted “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz ’69 as the inaugural mentor-in-residence. A national expert on traffic, transportation infrastructure, safety, and urban planning, Schwartz lectured to a packed house. The following spring, poet, educator, judge, and literary activist J.P. Howard was welcomed to campus in the role. She, too, delivered a well-attended keynote address, “The Power of Words Through Poetry and Public Interest Law.” Both Schwartz and Howard did much more than simply lecture. They met one-on-one with students, lectured in classes, visited student clubs, and became resources for students interested in fields like their own. The Tow Mentoring Initiative brings to life the exciting vision of making outstanding, individualized mentorship a defining feature of a Brooklyn College education, ensuring a vibrant, intellectual culture for all.
