Overall Experience:
I actually found mentoring at the Boys and Girls Club in Alton quite enjoyable and enlightening. If I’m being honest I initially went into this initiative only thinking about how good it would look on my resume. However, with time, I realized that I was being motivated by the impact I was helping to have on the lives of these young adults. That perspective then made it all worth the time, miles, and thought-process to be good mentors.
Working with People
I feel like I’m already pretty good at working with people and understanding how to navigate the dynamic of a team. Being an involved student leader on-campus has taught me that it’s important to compromise, communicate, and look ahead at the end goal(s). What I’m not so customed to is working with people “below” me for a lack of better words. High schoolers are tough, and I’m surprised that that used to be me. Working with our mentees was definitely a challenge, but we as mentors were able to overcome many obstacles by simply being vocal with our expectations and being present. Eventually, with each Thursday that we returned back to Alton, things got easier as our relationships strengthened.
Findings About Myself
As a mentor something I learned myself is that I’m not too bad at speaking up and sharing my two-cents. I can get very intimidated in new environments, but thankfully as I was surrounded by my research team I gained the courage to put myself out there and be vulnerable with the mentees. I think that’s really what they needed to see from us anyways in order for them to be vulnerable too. Once that was established, it was really about holding the conversation which I think I did a good job with.
Key Takeaways
On our last day mentoring, Mia was able to ask the mentees some questions about our mentorship program and the impact, if any, that it had on them. It was very informal, and all they had to do was write their responses on a sheet of paper anonymously. By the end of it, apparently all of them that turned in their papers said they wanted to see us again next school year. This was really the biggest takeaway that I’ll be remembering. It’s interesting because even though our research team had never done anything like this before, we still managed to create enough good memories with the mentees for them to want to see us again. It definitely makes things more difficult for us as we decide whether or not we’ll be returning because of the lack of our availability and external support. I guess we’ll figure out what happens in a few months.