Post 2

In regards to the 5 different peer mentor roles, I think my leadership style best lines up with learning coach. I would like to be one of the people that guides the students toward self-discovery in that they learn who they are and what they need to do/not do to be successful in life.

I agree with the comment made within the article about anxiety. As a person, I have come to realize that I do strive to do so well in so much, that sometimes I take the risk of stretching myself too thin and that does come with its own challenges - like anxiety. I think an added risk (in addition to the article) would be my fears as a peer mentor that I do not follow through on what was promised to the student - as in, not creating as strong of a connection as I would like or accidentally playing favoritism because I know my current group so well.

I think the most important value for a peer mentor to have is passion, but specifically a passion for students where part of your definition of success is their success. You can be passionate for representation of first-gen. student or foster youth, but at the end of the day, you really have care deeply for each individual student. Following passion would be professionalism. I believe this is very important in a peer role. If your students don't respect you, I think there is little chance they believe you'll be able to help them overall. Courage is important to me as well. Being able to say, "No, you're doing really poorly in classes and from what you've told me, I think it might be linked to your lifestyle habits. If you want to do better for yourself, you have to make some changes" is a hard thing to do. It may seem easier to just briefly touch on the problem and then tell them to try harder next week, but a peer mentor has to be able to (gently) tell it how it is, but with confidence.

Now, to brighten up your blog reading, an image of my favorite Instagram famous, Munchkin Cat:

Albert Baby Cat