Colvin and Ashman describe five different roles that peer mentors often associate with. I believe that I associate as being the connecting link. This is because I feel like with my friends, I have already helped them out with how they can get themselves involved more with campus. Also, I tend to look for opportunities quite frequently that would get me more involved with campus and my community. I am sure I could extend the knowledge I have gained from my own experiences to someone looking to do the same. I'm not a bossy type of leader, I'd rather provide people with the resources they need and have them learn for themselves. I think this is a key aspect of the connecting link role, because I am just giving them what they need in order to figure things out themselves.
A big risk I see myself possibly getting associated with in regards to my role as a connecting link is the student becoming too dependent on me. I tend to let people know that they can rely on me, which sometimes leads to people taking advantage of me. As a peer mentor, I'm going to have many students all looking to me for help at points. I just don't want it to become too heavy on my shoulders too the point where I am carrying so much weight that I can't handle it.
Three values I consider to be of utmost importance in peer mentoring are empathy, professionalism, and selflessness. Empathy is important, because students are going through a big change in their lives. Sometimes it's harder for some than it is for others. In order to really help them out, we must be able to feel how they feel, but not to a point where we make their problems our problems. Professionalism is important in any setting. Establishing those boundaries from the start really helps set the tone for the remainder of the year. Students must feel comfortable with their peer mentor, but must be reminded that they are still a professional. Selflessness means a couple different things to me. To start, it means putting aside your own beliefs and prejudices in order to help someone. This doesn't mean you need to change your own values, it just means that you can't be unfair to someone just because of what they may look, act, or seem like. Selflessness also means that a peer mentor must be willing to serve with their whole heart in order to be effective. Of course there are boundaries to always keep in mind, but to be effective, students must know that you care.
Amy,
ReplyDeleteI like how you invest time being involved on campus and in your community. As a peer mentor, you will be of course go through training but the more outside knowledge and personal experience you can bring to the table the better. Of course you will not be expected to know everything and that is where asking for help comes into play as well but it sound alike you are on the right track. Your risk is very common, you will have some mentees that need some or little guidance in areas and others that will need more, the best suggestion I can give when a mentee as you what or where something is you can say "I am not sure, but we can find out together" this way you and your mentee are working together and each person has a part. There will be occasions that you feel the need to go above and beyond for your mentees but remind yourself of what you have done and ALWAYS ask for help especially from your supervisor some issues or questions may be bigger than you. I agree that empathy is an important value but I think its important to be able to relate to your mentee or put yourself in their shoes and not necessarily feel how they feel because sometimes you may not feel exactly how they feel. It sounds like you have a great handle on professionalism. I really like your definition of selflessness of serving with your whole heart that is a great way to explain it.
Fantastic post! I really liked your values you listed. I did not think of empathy or selflessness when listing mine. I think those two values bring a different look into the mentoring role and I also really enjoyed the discussion on those values as well. Especially keeping those values while upholding the mentoring relationship with professionalism.
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