Communication

While many people have trained me, offered me career guidance, and encouraged my career as a sex educator, my very first (and most influential) sex ed mentor was Ivy Chen. When she’s not mentoring, Ivy’s a lecturer at San Francisco State University and teaches age-appropriate sexuality education classes to primary, middle, and high school students throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. I first learned about Ivy when I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about her work in schools. The article described her passion for educating young people about making healthy choices and reflected the sex-positive approach she takes to her work. At the time the article was published, I was starting my first year as a sexual health peer educator at my university and just beginning to learn about the possibilities for how I could turn my love of teaching others about sexuality into a life-long career. Continue Reading →

One of the things I’ve read that has been the most beneficial to me as a sex educator has been Bill Taverner’s article “Tips for Emerging Sexology Professionals: Networking and Nurturing.” While this article about the importance of networking and nurturing among sexology professionals is from 2006, I still think it’s extremely relevant. Lots of my friends have been discussing New Year’s Resolutions, and I am aiming to put more effort into sex education. I’m still somewhat new to the field, and it can be extremely difficult to make a living doing this (no one gets into this for the money), as can breaking into the sex education field at all. There are definitely some amazing and supportive individuals in this field (I count everyone that writes for My Sex Professor among them), but I’ve also encountered some less than helpful individuals. Continue Reading →

Mentorship – the art of nurturing a relationship between a mentor and mentee – is important in all fields but mentorship is particularly crucial for those of us who study sexuality. There’s no Occupational Outlook guide for how to become a sex educator or researcher, so it’s left to mentoring relationships to help us navigate that career path. Since January is National Mentoring Month, it seems an opportune time to reflect on the mentorship process and to honor and highlight the efforts of those who’ve nurtured our work. This week on MSP, the blogging team will be writing about their individual mentors’ work as well as about mentorship in the sexuality field in a broader sense. For aspiring sexuality professionals, this week’s posts might shine some light on future directions you might take. Continue Reading →