How Sponsorship is the Key for Mentorship
Written by Aladine Elsamadicy, MD
My father would always tell me and my 5 other siblings, “When you’re given an opportunity to take the stairs up in life, be sure to send the elevator down”. Growing up from a humble background, I did not truly understand what my father was trying to tell us. I was working for everything I earned and was using education as my ticket to transcend the barriers that exist for the socio-economically disadvantaged. I grew to use my failures as learning opportunities, and my perseverance as motivation whenever I was knocked down. However, what I’ve come to learn about the path of academic medicine, is that some opportunities cannot afford failure.
Advice is easy to obtain and much easier to filter. Many people have opinions and spending 5 minutes from their day to let you know their thoughts takes little effort. Mentorship, on the other hand, is difficult to find, and even more challenging to filter. Understanding the difference between “advice” and “mentorship” will not only serve you well in medical school, but for the rest of your career. When I entered medical school in 2013, if someone told me that 9 years later I’ll be a Senior Neurosurgery Resident at Yale with over 150 publications in Neurosurgery, I wouldn’t be able to fathom it. However, my first true mentor in medical school believed it was possible, and gave me the tools for me to believe it for myself.
Mentorship to me boils down to 5 particular traits, similar to my 5 siblings: availability, approachability, sincerity, guidance, and sponsorship. The first 4 traits are pretty straightforward, while the most important one I believe is sponsorship. A mentor should want you to succeed…period. If there is a feeling of doubt based on conversations and previous actions, then they may just be pretending to be a mentor, which can be worse than not having a mentor. A colleague of mine in Neurosurgery, Dr. Nitin Agarwal, MD, would give a talk on how mentorship = sponsorship, and I believe without sponsorship then no sum of traits can equal mentorship. This concept is very important, as when it comes time to apply for Residency, sponsorship is the key that allows mentorship to open doors.
But what does it mean to be sponsored? Sponsorship has always been part of our lives since grade school - it's who you want on your team. When you were chosen to pick your classmates to form a team, it was not always the flashiest player or even the most skilled, it was the classmates you grew a relationship with and had qualities that others may have overlooked. This is the same concept goes for applying to Residency. Essentially, who wants you on their team and is willing to let others not only know but understand why. But to be advocated for in the process requires investments.
Overall, for medical students, it is important to identify mentors who embody the 5 traits will provide a road map to residency. Mentorship should not be taken lightly and requires work from both the mentee and mentor to maintain a healthy and productive relationship. For me, I pride myself on being as great of a mentor as I can be to my mentees, and I humble myself in seeking the best mentorship I can obtain. At the end of the day, we are all humans with emotions who are navigating our careers, research, family, and stress. Patience and understanding always go a long way.
