IALLT Interview Project Episode 7: Interview about the Scenic Route IALLT Mentoring Program with Helaine Marshall and Marie Mangold

In this interview, Jeff Samuels speaks with Helaine Marshall, a professor at Long Island University and Marie Mangold, a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, about their experiences in IALLT’s mentoring program. “The Scenic Route” provides a pairing of established educators with a technology interest and emerging language or language technology professionals. Each participant discusses her background and what drew her to participate as a mentor or mentee, respectively. Each also delineates the structure and process of the mentorship that encouraged a successful and rewarding experience. Both were relatively new IALLT members when they attended the 2021 virtual IALLT conference, and both were drawn to the mentorship program because of the combination of structure with flexibility. Monthly meetings took place and the two were able to meet in person as it happened that each had a conference in the same hotel toward the end of the program. For mentees, the ability to interact and compare experiences affords an additional benefit. Spoiler alert: after the interview, the interviewees discussed a potential joint proposal for the IALLT 2023 conference, an indirect but noteworthy result of their mentorship experience.