Mentoring at Bucks - what is it and who needs it?

Mentor's old pal Odysseus

What is mentoring? and what is a mentor? According to Wikipedia: the original Mentor was a friend of Odysseus. He looked after Odysseus's son Telemachus, acting as his guide and teacher, when Odysseus sailed off to fight in the Trojan Wars. Hence the term mentoring.

At Bucks, mentoring is a way of offering students one-on-one support from (usually, but not necessarily, older) people who have been there, and done that. If you feel like you would like to find a mentor at the university, or have a bit of wisdom and experience you would like to pass on to others, then the man to talk to is Paul Wilcock, who is one of two dedicated staff at Bucks who look after the mentoring program. We asked Paul to tell us what, exactly, mentoring is, and why students might be interested in getting involved.