"The experiences I have had as a mentor so far have been a mix of good experiences as well as some challenges, of which I have been able to learn from. To start with, I was assigned my first mentee in late November/early December and the initial problem I encountered was actually trying to contact him to arrange a meeting together. He is a very busy student and has a high amount of engagement in extra-curricular activities outside of the university, so to actually arrange the first meeting with him was incredibly difficult.
When we were able to have our first meeting I discovered a lot about my mentees strengths, weaknesses, motivations and character. The starter pack really assisted in discovering how strong or weak each of these aspects were, not only for my first, but also for my second mentee. I found that both my mentees were 3rd year students which really helped as there are a lot of transferable skills which can be applied in dissertation writing and considering the fact that they are both in their final year, my mentees are also completing a project management unit (which I also completed in my final year along with me doing a Project Management MSc). This helps me in helping them as I know what they are to expect.
In saying this, my mentees strengths and weaknesses are vastly disparate and so far they range from needing help with assignment structure, understanding assignment criteria and assistance with time management. I have run through exercises with both mentees which involve analysing feedback from an assignment and understanding why they were given the grade they were and where they can improve the next time so they can learn from previous mistakes made.
As part of mentoring training, I attended a critical thinking session which gave me an idea for an exercise I planned and delivered the next week with one of my mentees, although it is more important at masters level, I am encouraging her to look for areas within her essays now to think a little bit more about how she can incorporate this into her assignments as she is planning to join a master’s degree when she graduates.
Communication has still been a problem with my first mentee as over Christmas he was extremely ill and has been in and out of hospital since. Overall the satisfaction of helping someone else when I have been in a similar situation is very gratifying and both of my mentees are always so appreciative of the assistance.
More recently I have had much more work myself to complete and haven’t been able to arrange regular meetings but I am back on track this week and trying to arrange meetings with both mentees (one of which I have now booked a session with).
It has been a brilliant experience so far and I am more than happy to assist them in maximising their academic potential to get everything they want out of the university and life."
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