Mentorship is one of the most important founding elements of academia. In fact, it can be easily argued that mentorship was born with academia. An effective mentorship in training and teaching programs results in the recruitment and retention of qualified students and early-career researchers. However, what are the current best practices of mentoring? And is mentorship currently a priority in academic and research institutions? The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the current model of mentorship in academia and highlight some of the key qualities of an academic mentor.