I came across this article recently on making it through the Ph.D. experience, and I wanted to share: https://diverseeducation.com/article/124210/.
The author shares a lot of really great ideas, but my favorite one is the "mentor map." Identifying different mentors for different needs is essential not only in your doctoral program, but moving forward through life. As you get older your life gets more complicated and the idea that a single person (or two) can meet all of your personal, professional, and other needs is unrealistic.
I'm particularly interested in the idea of near-peer mentoring. Here are a couple of resources for near-peer mentoring for faculty:
https://www.duq.edu/assets/Documents/cte/_pdf/near-peer%20mentoring%20Poster%202018%20for%20ICED.pdf
Willingham-McLain, L., Margolis, J., & Klingler, N. (2019). Designing and Evaluating a Near-Peer Mentoring Exchange for Early-Career Faculty. The Journal of Faculty Development, 33(3), 59-70.
While those speak to the faculty experience, think about the benefits of getting guidance from someone who is slightly ahead of you in the doctoral process. It can be a benefit to the mentee (getting guidance) and the mentor (getting to share insight - even when they may not feel completely confident about doing doctoral work).
Map the course that works best for you and here's to lots of support and good things in your future.
