First off, the discussion of our interactions with our former peer mentors, whether it was our CAs, our learning community peer mentors, or our Hixson peer mentors, was insightful in hearing what went well with them and what did not. For the most part, I had great peer mentors my freshman year between my Hixson peer mentors and my learning community peer mentors. My Hixson Peer Mentors were very professional and I always felt like they were a great example to follow and knew a lot about the Iowa State community. One of my learning community peer mentors was particularly good at making herself available to me. We e-mailed often and even had a one-on-one meeting to discuss summer jobs. She even gave me the contact information for one of her bosses, knowing they would be looking to hire that summer. I credit them for helping me survive the big transition between high school and college. It's nice to get to see them on campus every once in awhile and let them know that things are still going good.
On the other hand, I'm not going to say my CA was a horrible peer mentor, but he definitely didn't establish the most professional relationship with a lot of his residents. I was friends with him and thought of him as just that, a friend, not exactly someone I would go to for help if I had a concern. I think this goes to show how important it is to maintain that professional-level relationship with our students and not just become a part of their circle of friends.
My favorite part of the class, however, was going around to each peer mentor and having them mention one thing that we would like to provide for our students or one thing that we would like to get out of our experience as a peer mentor. Some of the things were already mentioned in my mission statement, but there were new ones that I hadn't thought of that I thought were perfect, like the "creation of a small family." My section became very close early on with the help of the retreat during the first weekend. We would often get lunch or dinner together before classes. I still talk to a few of them regularly and see a lot of them on campus!
One of the main reasons that I decided to come to be a peer mentor was because I had such a positive experience my freshman year and I was missing the participation and connections to the Hixson Program. As peer mentors, I think we've already began to connect with one another and I foresee that continuing through the fall as we help each other become the best peer mentors for our own students.
I'm looking forward to Thursday to see which one of you I get to work with more this fall!
Discussing different experiences people have with peer mentors opens up your eyes to how it can go wrong. But, the way I see it is these are just a lesson in the Don'ts of being a peer mentor. I originally chose to become a peer mentor because I wanted to give back to the Hixson program, but also because I didn't feel I had the best experience possible with my peer mentors. They were not terrible, but they did not work very well together. One seemed to be doing all the serious work and the other just seemed to be goofing off. I have no doubt that our group of peer mentors will do an excellent job in the spring.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you decided to mention keeping a professional relationship as well as a friendship and not just a friendship because essentially we are their mentors and our job is to guide them and help prepare them for success in their first semester here at Iowa State. Sometimes we may have to get on the bad side in order to help them realize what is best for them. Us having high expectations for them is going to help them want to do better in order to make us proud after a good relationship has been established. I am glad that you stressed the importance of this sort of relationship and how it will allow us to prosper as peer mentors. :)
ReplyDeleteNicole