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Cross-cultural mentoring involves an ongoing, intentional, and mutually enriching relationship with someone of a different race, gender, ethnicity, religion, cultural background, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, or nationality. Generally more experienced, the cross-cultural mentor guides the intellectual and personal development of the mentee over time. At its best, this relationship is built on a foundation of what I call "the three Vs": values, virtues, and vision. The identification of values that are held in common, even across difference, leads to the development of trust and understanding. The cultivation of virtues-the abilities and ways of knowing that enable one to deal with various personalities, cultures, and experiences-enables one to maintain individual and institutional I boundaries and to overcome barriers between people. The commitment to a vision of inclusive excellence inspires one to clear educational pathways and help others overcome obstacles and limitations.
A sense of trust and understanding between mentor and mentee is a crucial element in the relationship. While my focus here is on crosscultural mentoring, the overall purpose of all forms of mentoring is to find commonality and common ground among individual values, virtues, and visions. It is in doing this that a special sense of trust, care, guidance, and support can grow. But before discussing cross-cultural mentoring more generally, let me begin by sharing my own experience of its importance.
From the warmth of the South to the cold of the Midwest
The oldest of four children, I was born in Alabama on the campus of the Tuskegee Institute (now known as Tuskegee University). Although I grew up in a highly segregated and stratified community, under the cloud of legally sanctioned segregation, I, like many African Americans, benefitted from the love and support of a closeknit community. This love and support cultivated in my family, friends, and me a passion to grow and excel despite the hurdles we faced. And in time, due in part to a relationship between my father and "Mr. R," a white Southerner who came to our home and who worked side by side with him, I began to see the possibility of relationships that were unconditional, revolutionary, and evolutionary. What I had witnessed as a child, though I didn't have the words for it at the time, was a...