Prior to my coming to the United States, my undergraduate studies in South Africa of the early 1980s took place at a time when intellectual inquiry was extremely valued by progressive educators and students, who viewed the academy as a site of knowledge/power. Therefore an emphasis was placed on collective study and community-focused research projects, tutorials and study groups complemented the formal lectures. This process assisted in clarifying complex theoretical issues for students, who were in the process of becoming researchers.

In the United States, however, I discovered to my surprise that research was individualized. As a result, when I completed my course work for the dissertation, I was left to grapple with the process of research very much on my own.

This period of research was very alienating. Although self-imposed, I felt somewhat imprisoned. The constant anxiety and self-doubt that I believe most dissertation candidates go through, plagued me. The anguish became particularly acute in the last stages of the research. I had come to resent the task of revision, as suggested by the academic advisor of my dissertation committee. To console myself, I would escape into further reading at local libraries or bookshops, which invariably prolonged the consolidation of the actual research findings.

It was during one such visit that Faye Williams, co-owner of Sisterspace and Books, sensed my anguish. In my conversation with her I could not help but stress the problematic of loneliness and isolation in the dissertation research process that was prohibiting my completion of the project. Ms. Williams informed me of SisterMentors.

Though the group was filled to its capacity and could not accommodate one other participant, Dr. Shireen Lewis, founder of the group, was kind enough to speak to me about my predicament. She stressed that my situation was not unique and noted that she had been told similar stories on numerous occasions by many women of color, who were attempting to make a dent in academia, which has historically been a white male domain. While Dr. Lewis realized that her existing groups could not accommodate me at the time, she nevertheless promised to find one of the women graduates from the group who might be willing to assist me on a one-on-one basis, since the motto that the groups emphasize is "each one, teach, one."

This suggestion, in my case, worked out perfectly, since the dialogue that developed between the graduate and me filled the void that existed in the absence of a communal experience in the research process. Drawing from the strategies she acquired from SisterMentors to overcome her own battle with writers block, the graduate assisted me to construct different strategies for effective writing, and research practices that ultimately resulted in the successful completion and defense of the dissertation.

Both Dr. Lewis and the graduate, as women, understood the predicament of isolation and alienation that women of color face in dissertation writing in academia. Without their assistance, undoubtedly the project would have gone into oblivion. Thus, I cannot overemphasize the importance of SisterMentors, as a community building resource institution, outside the bureaucracy of academia that is committed to filling the void and solitude of dissertation writing. I therefore plead for the sustenance and expansion of the support groups, so that they will fill the needs of the emerging population of women of color in academia who face obstacles similar to mine.