The Mentoring Institute began in 1993 as an effort by a group of Empire State College faculty to create opportunities to consciously build a meaningful mentoring community. The original motto: "Mentors for Mentors," expressed the belief that mentoring is a distinctive professional practice that demands both attention and nurturing if it is to thrive.

In 1998, The Mentoring Institute became more directly connected to Empire State College's Office of Academic Affairs, and has thus also taken on a number of institutional responsibilities concerning the development of the faculty. Guided by a director and supported by a Mentoring Institute Advisory Board with representatives from centers and units around the College, the Mentoring Institute offers on-going workshops for new and more experienced mentors and initiates programs and activities relevant to the scholarship of mentoring and to overall faculty development.

Included in the activities of the Mentoring Institute is the publication of All About Mentoring (three times/year), and the creation and dissemination of materials relevant to mentoring life. And, since the fall of 2001, The Mentoring Institute has also taken up both the charge and the work of the National Center on Adult Learning (formerly housed at Empire State College), which has sought on-going connections with other organizations and institutions involved in the theory and practice of adult learning.

It continues to be the mission of the Mentoring Institute to acknowledge the central role of mentoring to the life of Empire State College, and to respond--programmatically and in spirit--to a growing body of theoretical and practical learning about adults and about what the faculty need to sustain ourselves as effective, energetic, and reflective practitioners.