As the former director of the Compton Fellowship Program, the author has an in-depth knowledge about the program. When she left the position in 1997, she became interested in doing research on the impact of the program. The author knew that she would filter the events and situations that took place through a lens which would influence her interpretation of the study. To minimize subjectivity, the author conducted the study while incorporating safeguard procedures such as triangulation, member checks, peer debriefing, and verifying of data to establish trustworthiness. Drawing on new teacher mentoring research, this article emphasizes the importance of quality mentoring in new teacher development. Here, the author presents a brief summary of the Compton Fellowship Program in an effort to demonstrate that alternative certification programs can be viable educational options for preparing teachers especially when mentoring is a major part of the program design.