MSI Press Blog

  When I first entered the field of second‑language education, I was young, unproven, and full of ideas I didn’t yet know how to place in the world. Breaking in was tough. I had no roadmap, no insider knowledge, and no sense of where to begin. What I did have was the conviction that I had something worth saying. One of my colleagues at the time was Dr. Earl Stevick—already highly published, widely respected, and known for the clarity and humanity of his work. Our relationship was still new, but Earl was big‑hearted. He saw my hunger to learn, and he didn’t hoard his experience. We went to lunch one afternoon, and I asked him the question every new writer wishes they could ask someone who has already made it: “What do you wish someone had told you before you published your first book?” He didn’t hesitate. “Find an agent,” he said. Then he reached into his wallet, pulled out a card, and handed it to me. “Here is my agent. Tell him I sent you.” I did. And from that moment—thr...

Every January, while the world is busy making resolutions it may or may not keep, something quieter and more durable unfolds in the background: National Mentoring Month . It’s a month dedicated not to reinvention, but to relationship — to the slow, steady work of showing up for another human being. Mentoring rarely looks glamorous. It’s not a movie montage of breakthroughs and tidy life lessons. More often, it’s a series of small, ordinary choices: listening when you’re tired, asking one more question, offering a story from your own life that you hope lands gently. It’s the kind of work that doesn’t trend, but it transforms. What I love about National Mentoring Month is that it doesn’t pretend mentoring is effortless. Instead, it honors the people who keep doing it anyway — the teachers, coaches, neighbors, aunties, uncles, faith leaders, coworkers, and community elders who invest in someone else’s becoming. It also reminds us that mentoring isn’t a one-directional act of charity. It’s...