Mentoring Experience
My mentoring experience was a great opportunity to not only meet someone new in the HTM program, but to also pass on my knowledge and experiences. I wanted to set a good example for my mentee by being a role model using my leadership skills. My mentee was Elena Mineo, who is very friendly and we hit it off right off the bat. Elena and I had a very natural relationship where we could speak to each other on a friendship level. I wanted to develop a friendship with her because my mentor and I were great friends, which made me feel comfortable talking to her about anything and not just about school. I started asking her more about her personal life aside from school when we met after the second time, and the conversation seemed to flow much better from there on out. I could see her light up when I asked spoke to her about things other than school so that we didn’t always have to be so serious. Creating a shared vision was quite easy knowing that we are studying the same major and therefore share similar interests and goals. I asked her what her academic and professional goals were, and her main goal was to focus on getting good grades and getting ahead on her assignments, which I also had in common. We share the same vision of being a good student and graduating from the Payne school within the next year. Aside from short-term goals, we also share similar career goals because we are both looking to work in the events emphasis. Creating a shared vision made the relationship much stronger because we were motivated to achieve similar goals by the end of the semester.
Throughout this experience, I wanted to teach my mentee as much as I could with the use of my knowledge and experiences. I think that the most useful knowledge I taught Elena was the fact that there are many HTM courses that cover BA classes that I found much more interesting and engaging. I taught her which classes could be substituted by HTM classes so she knew what her options were. I knew that this information would be beneficial for her, because I had other HTM students teach me about the different options we have for our major requirements. For each class, I gave her an overview of what the class entails and what the professor is like to give her a better insight of what she might want to take next semester. With this information, I helped her sign up for classes and also taught her how to get these substitute classes to cover the requirements for her degree evaluations. When I was doing this last semester, I wasn’t aware that you had to fill out a form for each substitute class and that it didn’t automatically replace the requirements, so teaching her through my experience helped her avoid obstacles in the long run.
This experience taught me how to be a role model for someone else by going through the cycle of creating a shared vision, developing expectations, etc. It was great to have a glimpse into what it might be like as a manager in the future. I was very lucky to have a mentee like Elena, who was respectful, friendly, and genuine. Her as a person made my experience that much more pleasant, because I feel that I have gained a friend and that I have become a person someone she could hopefully continue to look up to. I will continue to push myself to become the best leader I can be.
Throughout this experience, I wanted to teach my mentee as much as I could with the use of my knowledge and experiences. I think that the most useful knowledge I taught Elena was the fact that there are many HTM courses that cover BA classes that I found much more interesting and engaging. I taught her which classes could be substituted by HTM classes so she knew what her options were. I knew that this information would be beneficial for her, because I had other HTM students teach me about the different options we have for our major requirements. For each class, I gave her an overview of what the class entails and what the professor is like to give her a better insight of what she might want to take next semester. With this information, I helped her sign up for classes and also taught her how to get these substitute classes to cover the requirements for her degree evaluations. When I was doing this last semester, I wasn’t aware that you had to fill out a form for each substitute class and that it didn’t automatically replace the requirements, so teaching her through my experience helped her avoid obstacles in the long run.
This experience taught me how to be a role model for someone else by going through the cycle of creating a shared vision, developing expectations, etc. It was great to have a glimpse into what it might be like as a manager in the future. I was very lucky to have a mentee like Elena, who was respectful, friendly, and genuine. Her as a person made my experience that much more pleasant, because I feel that I have gained a friend and that I have become a person someone she could hopefully continue to look up to. I will continue to push myself to become the best leader I can be.