Unless sought out by the individual, University and College faculty typically receive minimal, if any, pedagogical training as part of their career development. This perspectives essay first introduces pedagogical training for instructors in higher education by comparing it to the training required for primary and secondary school educators. Using this as a backdrop, it then discusses the stated goals of higher education and contrasts these goals with the type of preparation that is traditionally offered to future faculty during graduate and post-doctoral training, with emphasis given to the general lack of teaching mentorship and practical application. It goes on to describe a future faculty member's journey of seeking out higher education pedagogical training, and the process of implementing a student-centered course based on a backward design model, highlighting the importance of experienced mentorship in this process. This essay concludes with a reflection on the backward design process as a whole, the imagined difference in the quality of curriculum and implementation in the absence of mentorship, as well as a discussion about how this experience speaks to pedagogical preparation of higher education teachers in the United States.