Faculty mentorship and first year students at the Yale School of Medicine: reflections and perspective.

concept for students and those training for a career in medicine. For the mentor, the experience can be highly rewarding, and he or she must appreciate the potential value and impact the experience may have on the mentee. Many students have selected or diverted interest from specialties based on interaction with a single mentor who has had a positive, or possibly negative influence in the case of diversion. House officers (residents) have made subspecialty selection and supplemental career choices based on complementary experiences with mentors during the training period. The experience takes a variety of forms, and the mentor experience can be both active and passive. Clearly for many of us, we can identify a single or small number of mentors who had a significant role in shaping the foundation upon which we have developed our careers, practice, and work ethic. Medical students have a vast amount of information to learn and synthesize during the four years of the medical school curriculum. The tasks of medical education are rather formidable, and the initial trajectory is of tantamount importance in fostering a successful medical school experience for the student. Often, the greatest challenge is deciding which concepts are most significant and which are more of simply academic interest. These distinctions are for the most part the responsibility of the teacher and can be revealed through the presentation of new information during lectures and practical experiences. Obviously much of one's success or talent as a teacher is based upon the ability to do this effectively and in a way that is attractive to students. In 1996, I endeavored to bring these concepts to fruition by participating in a program that randomly matched first-year students with a faculty member mentor. The faculty member was responsible for spending time with a small group of the students, generally on a weekly basis, and YALE JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 77 (2004), pp. 155-157. Copyright © 2005. All rights reserved.