Ethics and Boundaries
- The role I feel most aligns with my leadership style is Learning Coach. When I first came to NAU, I was like a deer in headlights. I did not get the opportunity to have a peer mentor, but do have a great advisor who I consider my mentor. When one transitions from high school or even community college, nothing can prepare them for university life. Before I met my mentor, I was not involved in any school activities and struggling in my classes. I did not know how to go about getting tutoring. I did take initiative to meet other students in my class, exchange email, and offer my help to others with concepts that I grasped and they did not. I have always loved helping people. The role of Learning Coach best suites me because I believe anyone is capable of reaching their full potential. Some people just need to hear the encouragement from someone else. I see myself as being that person. Helping a mentee identify their strengths helps them achieve their full potential making not only them a better student but myself.
- A risk I can see occurring as a Learning Coach would be my mentee become too dependent. Let's say I am helping them study for an upcoming test; are they going to expect me to help them study for every test for every class. I would like to teach them some helpful study habits so they can apply on any other tests or exams that come up in their classes, but have me as their own study tool. This article was very informative and I cannot think of another risk that was not covered. Then again, this will be my first time being a peer mentor and I'm sure there are risks that were not mentioned that experienced peer mentors would know of.·
- In my opinion three values that I feel are of utmost importance in a peer mentorship would be professionalism, proactivity, and flexibility. Professionalism; a peer mentor should be able to communicate in a polite and respectful manner. Peer mentors must maintain accurate documentation and keep their mentees updated. We do not want to hurt our mentees academically because we slacked off. Peer mentors should also attend all required workshops and meeting. Cancelling on mentees does not make a good impression on a mentee. Proactivity; many students don't seek help when they need it. I was one of them. A peer mentor should be proactive. Some examples include; coming prepared to meetings, adjusting to meet mentees needs, and keeping track of events/calendar. Flexibility; I know we are students' ourselves but we should be able to accommodate to our mentees as much as we can. Each of our mentees are going to have different schedules, study techniques, learning styles, and personalities. A part of our job is adapting to what works for them and helping them be successful.
I like how you put your own experience in the blog. It is true everyone struggles throughout school and I am the same way I need to hear it from someone else that I can do this and that I will not give up. I just have to keep pushing through. I like how one of your three values are flexibility I did not think of that but it is true we need to be able to make time for our students to come to us. I especially like the pro-activity as a peer mentor we do need to come prepared and make the best out of group meetings or one-on-one with our mentee's.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that students becoming to reliant on us could become a problem in the future. I think it'll be interesting to try to transition them from being reliant on us to self sustaining. Hopefully this class and some experience will help with that! I also like your idea of being proactive. I wish freshan-me had had someone pushing them and aware of what was happening during my first year! I think that would be a great thing to focus on while mentoring.
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