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About Our Mentorship Program SCBWI-MI has offered a mentorship program for its members since 2000. Only one mentorship is offered per year and the eligible genre (illustration, novels, picture books. . . ) varies, in an effort to fairly serve our membership. Strong participation in a program –or lack of entrants– may affect the frequency of that genre's appearance in the future. Usually, program details including eligibility requirements and genre of competition are announced in early spring, the deadline early summer, the winner announced mid-summer, and the year-long mentorship runs from the fall of that year to the fall of the following year. You must be a member with primary residence in Michigan to be eligible. Other requirements are listed within the details of the current year's program. If you'd like to see a mentorship program offered in your genre, speak up. Chat with our Advisory Committee, or become an active volunteer in our chapter and offer to help mold a new program.
The 2006-2007 Mentorship program was offered to SCBWI-MI illustrators; winners were announced at the Spring conference, June 10, 2006. First Place Winner Heidi Woodward Sheffield won a year-long Mentorship with professional picture book illustrator Susan Kathleen Hartung. Runner-up Susan Miller received a certificate of recognition and a gift certificate to a future SCBWI-MI event. The competition was open to unpublished illustrators (those who have published/contracted for a book as author or illustrator were ineligible; magazine and anthology work okay). All entries received feedback from judges. View and/or print Complete 2006-2007 Mentorship Program Details in .pdf format We thank Mentorship Chairperson April Gaff for facilitating the Mentorship. 2006-2007 Winning Entries
In June of 2000, Michigan launched its mentorship program. A handful of other SCBWI chapters had begun mentoring programs; all were enthusiastic. How wonderful for a member to receive encouragement and direction, one on one, from a nurturing professional. We wanted to offer this to our Michigan membership, but how? Michigan Adcom member Brenda Shannon Yee raised her hand. She would further investigate what other chapters were doing, what worked, what didn't, and design our Michigan program. In this, our first year, a writing mentorship was offered. Manuscripts were restricted to either picture book or novels. A panel of pre-judges were chosen and the winner selected through a manuscript competition. Member Susan Talanda was pronounced winner of the competition for her outstanding novel entry, and although there were a few bumps, the program was a wonderful success from everyone's point of view. In 2001, the manuscript competition for writers was held in conjunction with the June "Picture This!" event. Any unpublished SCBWI-MI member could enter; the allowable category was picture books. Congratulations to all our 2001 winners and especially Michele Root-Bernstein, whose manuscript took first place. Michelle's mentor is Ann Tompert. 2001 was just as rewarding for all involved. In 2002, the mentorship was again offered to writers, the allowable genre was novels. Access 2002-2003 Mentorship Program: Category: Novels 2002-2003. Congratulations to winner, Catherine Bieberich, for her manuscript "Dandelion Fuzz." Catherine will be mentored by Audrey Couloumbis, Newbery Honor author of Getting Near to Baby. Congratulations also to our runner-up, Carol Anahid Azizian, who won a scholarship to our Fall Retreat. In 2003, the mentorship program was offered to illustrators; a competition was held in conjunction with our April event, "Celebrate Creativity Workshop." Congratulations to our winner, Leslie Helakoski, who was mentored by Lori McElrath-Eslick. Although an illustration mentorship is not offered in 2004, you can still access information about the 2003-2004 Mentorship Program: Category Illustration in PDF format. It might help you prepare for or suggest changes to a future program. We thank our 2003 Mentorship Chairperson, Nancy Shaw and our 2003 mentor, Lori McElrath-Eslick., for their work and dedication to this program. They were the backbone of the program in 2003. In 2004, the mentorship program was offered to writers for picture book text. Eligibility requirements and competition details were mailed to all Michigan members with the brochure for the 2004 Spring Conference. Learn about the 2004 Mentor Rhonda Gowler Greene. Access 2004-2005 Mentorship Program:Category Picture Books, Our Mentorship Program Coordinator for 2004-2005 is Rachael Anderson.We thank both Rachel and Rhonda for their commitment to this program. In 2005, the mentorship program was offered to SCBWI-MI writers; the genre was novels. Winner of our one-year Mentorship was Micki Huyksen who was mentored by Sue Stauffacher, author of Donuthead. 2005-2006 Amended Mentorship Program in pdf. The program coordinator was Mindy Krasner. We congratulate Micki for her winning entry --and thank our mentor Sue, and our program coordinator Mindy, for their work. Rachel Anderson was first Runner-up and was awarded a certificate to our 2005 Fall Conference. Other runners-up in alphabetical order are Kristen Bros, Laura Handy, Kristin Lenz, and Jennifer Porter. We congratulate you all. All programs offered by SCBWI-MI are a direct result of volunteer effort. We are seeking mentors for 2008-2009. Mentors receive some monetary compensation from our Michigan chapter but the desire to mentor comes from within. If you are a qualified author or illustrator and are interested in working as a mentor in a future year, please contact Susi Walter. |
