A Two-Way Street

Brian Hogan has been a mentor for the Carolina Covenant for longer than he’s been its director. A member of the chemistry faculty at Carolina, he’s worked closely with Covenant Scholars since 2004. Now as director, he’s bringing new students and mentors into the fold.

“Mentoring is a two-way street,” Hogan said. “Students get knowledge and life advice, but the mentors learn a great deal from the students.”

Like many of the students he mentors, Brian was the first in his family to go to college, and remembers that a biology professor saw something in him and became his mentor. “He was always there to help me in my academic life,” he said.

Brian calls himself fortunate because his mentor pushed him into a trajectory that made him believe he could be a college professor. Since arriving at Carolina as a doctoral student in chemistry, he has tried to pay it forward. The students he and his wife Kelly Hogan (an award-winning teaching professor in the Department of Biology) mentor often become de facto family members. Ten years ago, two Sudanese refugees, Emanuel and Ark, became their sons. “They not only walked into my classroom, they walked into our family,” Brian said.

Also, serving as a mentor has improved his teaching. “It has made me a better college professor, a better father and a better community member,” he said. “Instead of trying to demand success, I care more about how students define success, I care more about how students define success for themselves.”