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The "twenty-something" years of
young adulthood are increasingly recognized as critical
but puzzling. These are years of searching, when most people
make formative life decisions, for good and for ill. Looking
for place and purpose in a changing world and asking new
questions of meaning and faith, young adults reexamine their
earlier beliefs and assumptions as they encounter a bewildering
array of new experiences and complex choices. Too many wander
through this challenging time alone, without the presence
of mentoring voices.
Building on the foundation she established
in her classic work, The Critical Years, Sharon Daloz
Parks urges thoughtful adults to assume responsibility for
providing strategic mentorship during this important decade
in life. She reveals also, however, the ways young adults
are influenced not only by individual mentors but also by
mentoring environments.
Furthermore, Parks asserts, the wider culture
as a whole plays a mentoring role in the formation of each
new generation of young adults, shaping the future of the
culture itself. Through exploring young adult meaning-making
and faith, and particularly the power of adult mentors to
determine their quality, we may more fully recognize how
young adults and their mentors can fuel the power and promise
of cultural renewal.
Parks draws on her own research and insights
from developmental psychology, religion, theology, leadership,
and ethics to examine the underlying developmental patterns
of this unique time of life -- when one is no longer an
adolescent and yet not quite fully adult. She shares a wealth
of practical experience gained from thirty years of working
with young adults. Through thought-provoking examples from
across a broad range of contexts, professionals, educators,
community leaders, supervisors, and parents will discover
the many ways they can responsibly serve as guides and mentors
to young adults, thus making a vital investment in the promise
of the twenty-first century.
Sharon Daloz Parks is an associate director
and member of the faculty at the Whidbey Institute, near
Seattle. She has held faculty and senior research positions
at Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Business School, the
Kennedy School of Government, and the Weston School of Theology.
She is coauthor of Common Fire: Leading Lives of Commitment
in a Complex World; To Act Justly, Love Tenderly,
Walk Humbly; and Can Ethics Be Taught?
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