Companions for the Journey: The Gifts of Mentorship

The Reverend Dan Bell

Associate University Chaplain and Director of Protestant Life

Mentorship was one of the greatest gifts I received during my college years. I experienced mentoring from many people on campus—faculty, staff, and peers—and off campus, like older adults at my church and my family back home, but one mentor played an especially important role in my life back then. During my first year as an undergraduate, I signed up for a program called “Companions for the Journey.” It paired students with faculty and staff to meet regularly for a meal and conversation. I arrived at college as a fairly shy person, and I’m still not much of a social butterfly! It was a good way for me to step out and make a connection with someone.

And I am so glad I did! I was paired with a professor in the education department. His field of study wasn’t one I was pursuing but it didn’t matter. He and I hit it off. We talked about my interests, my family, and the shared faith we cherished and sometimes struggled with as well. I didn’t feel like I had to “perform” or act to impress him. I could be myself, which was a wonderful gift in a formative period for me as I reflected on my identity and place in the world.

A year of mentorship turned into two, and we continued to meet throughout my sophomore year. As I choose my major, discerned my sense of vocation, and made the big decision to study aboard during my junior year, this professor was not only a mentor to me but also a friend. He offered me words of encouragement, a listening ear, and a kind and prayerful presence amid life’s ups and downs.

We remained in touch throughout the rest of my college years, albeit less frequently while I lived and studied in England in my junior year, and when I returned to a busy senior year of thesis-writing and much else. After I graduated, our relationship changed as I moved to a new city and began divinity school. But we never lost touch. Through phone calls, emails, and the occasional lunch or dinner, our connection remained strong.

Today, all these years later, we live in different parts of the country and don’t speak or see each other as often as I would like. Yet I know that the bond we formed over two decades ago will never disappear. It is rooted in the things that make for a great mentoring relationship: mutual respect and care; common interests, though certainly not all the same ones; and shared values across different ages and backgrounds. It is about being companions on the journey.

In the Celtic Christian tradition, there is a wonderful phrase, anam ċara, which means “soul friend.” My colleague, Dr. Lynn Cooper, Senior Associate University Chaplain and Director of Catholic Life at Tufts, in her book Embracing Our Time: The Sacrament of Interfaith Friendship (Fortress Press, 2025), writes, “[T]he soul friend affords their beloveds spaciousness—uninterested in any end product but deeply invested in the questions on the heart in the present moment and the journey at hand. The soul friend does not expect us to be refined or presentable. They desire us as we are, life on life’s terms--#NoFilter” (p. 27).

My college mentor offered me this gift of being a true anam ċara. He invested his time, attention, and care into my life when I especially needed those things. He invited me to be myself, to live my life on my life’s terms and explore the fullness of my identity. I always will be grateful for this all-too-rare gift, and I give thanks for the opportunities I have now at Tufts to serve as a mentor among students. I hope I give them the same kind of attention and care that was given to me when I was in college.

I hope you too have received and given this precious gift of mentorship, whether among friends, children, or colleagues, in some way, big or small. No matter how different we are in age, beliefs, or whatever else, all of us can be a companion to another on life’s journey, and be companioned in return.