Multifaceted mentorship community: resisting historical mentoring to create mentee-initiated and sustained mentorship for women doctoral students

ABSTRACT In the absence of an institutionally sponsored doctoral mentoring program, a small group of women doctoral students developed a new model of mentoring by initiating and sustaining a multifaceted mentorship community (MMC). Using an autoethnographic approach, we present the development of this new model and insights into a mentee-initiated, multifaceted mentorship community that supports doctoral students. Our findings indicate the MMC helped doctoral students understand and navigate the politics of the university, created a collaborative culture that crowded out isolation, and provided sustainable mentorship. This study offers guidance for doctoral students and faculty in need of alternatives to traditional mentoring models. The MMC model may also be useful in educational and business environments outside of higher education.