New Book Encourages Students to Find Mentors to Guide Their Futures: Authors of Mentoring Magic Celebrate National Mentoring Month

Pittsburgh, PA, January 28, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Mentors can have a profound impact on our lives, guiding and inspiring us to great achievements according to the authors of a new book called Mentoring Magic: Pick the Card for Your Success, in which students and professionals to find, form and nurture mentoring relationships in their academic and work lives.

Dr. Shellie Hipsky and her co-author Dr. Claudia Armani-Bavaro are asking everyone to honor their mentors during January, which is National Mentoring Month. In Pennsylvania, they are holding a book signing where they will award mentors with the Mentoring Magic Award at the Penguin Bookshop on January 28th, 2011 at 6PM in Sewickley, PA.

Mentors play a role in nearly every aspect of our lives, but in recent years more attention has been given to developing formal mentoring relationships to ensure success in academic and corporate lives. For example, recent research shows that students who are mentored have much greater academic success, including higher Grade Point Averages (GPAs) and retention rates. And, according to the American Society for Training and Development, professionals can earn up to $22,450 more, annually, if they are mentored in the work place than those who do not have mentors.

In Mentoring Magic, Hipsky and Armani-Bavaro, share wisdom gleaned from interviews with over 100 students and their mentors on the importance of creating and maximizing the impact of these relationships.

“In fewer than 100 pages with lots of white space for reflection on the various content sections, it [the book] actually motivates the reader!” says Dr. Helen Sobehart, former University President of Cardinal Stritch University, adding “Brevity, of course, is not always a virtue, but to the audience for which this book is targeted -young people on often short journeys to strange places while also going on the spiritual journey of maturity- it gives them what they need quickly.”

In addition to lists such as “Ten Ways to Meet a Mentor…,” it is filled with mini-interviews that describe successful mentoring relationships and tips from experienced mentors and mentees. For example, a graduate student explained about her two mentors, “They both know where they came from, how they got to where they are in life, and where they want to go in the future. I am in that process as well; I’m just at a different point in my life. I hear their stories and sometimes I just have to say ‘Aha!’ It is times like these that their stories align with mine and I can start to see how I can make my way in my career.”

The book itself was written through a positive mentoring relationship. It was the inspiration Armani-Bavaro, who had been researching the concept of mentoring as an untapped resource on college campuses. Armani-Bavaro approached her then doctoral professor, Hipsky, to mentor her on the process of writing and publishing a book. Together they turned this vision into a published book for high school and college students to learn the tricks of networking and how to find, form, and sustain mentoring relationships throughout their college years.

“This book should sit prominently on the desk of every educator, corporate professional, and college student…everyone who seeks one-on-one guidance through mentorship,” says Dr. Lawrence A. Tomei, Associate Provost at Robert Morris regarding Mentoring Magic: Pick the Card for Your Success.

Drs. Shellie Hipsky and Claudia Armani-Bavaro are available for interviews on-camera, on-radio and in print and welcome the chance to serve as experts on the subject of mentoring. For more information or to obtain a copy of the book go to www.mentoringmagic.net.

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