CONSISTENCY IN MENTORSHIP Is Key to Academic Survival. Visibility and Attractiveness
By Prof. Dr. Halimu Shauri
Email, thecoastnewspaper@gmail.com
Consistency is key to progress. Whether you are successful or not, keep pushing.
You will agree with me that attractiveness and visibility of any professional lies in good mentorship.
Indeed, I always say:
“As we mentor, we survive beyond our professional and academic relevance.”
In fact, in our sister article [coming soon] titled “Push-in or Push-out”, you will recall if you will come across it that life is all about occupying spaces through a network of Push-Ins and Push-Outs.
These spaces may be economic, political, or social. Indeed, whenever there is a push-in, then there is a push-out.
Conversely, the push-out pushes in another space while pushing out someone else who also pushes in somewhere else, and the pattern continues.
These push-ins and push-outs make life to be a continuous network of pushes.
It is our responsibility, therefore, to know where we are pushing in and where we are being pushed out. Important to note is that we must be determined to consistently push.
This is because the Push-In – Push-Out network is a complex web that defines real life as we live it on a daily basis.
Today, I parade a successful mentorship case of one of my mentees who has graduated with a Masters of Arts in Sociology [MA Sociology] at the prestigious Pwani University, where I profess and I am the dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
As you can see, this is to give a practical example or testify that she has pushed from one academic space, undergraduate to postgraduate degree, to another. From lower academic space to a higher academic space.
As she moved, she created space for others to fill her undergraduate space and I am sure she has pushed others to occupy Ph.D spaces.
When I asked her what next, she said:
“I’m soon pushing in for my Ph.D degree space possibly January 2025.”
Accordingly, I take the honour to congratulate Leah Mwangi [MA Sociology 2024] for the academic milestone so far achieved and encourage her and you my reader that it is possible for you also to push-in whether in this academic space or other socioeconomic or sociopolitical spaces.
The onus is ours, you and me, to push in our own spaces so that we can ensure the complex network of Push-Ins and Push-Outs is in its utmost equilibrium.
I am pushing in, and someone will be pushed out to push in somewhere else.
Are you pushing in or being pushed out to push somewhere else, upper or lower space? Always push for higher goals and spaces in society.
— Writer is Dean and Consultant Sociologist Pwani University
