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Mentoring Experience
By: Sydney Ackerman

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Contents
The Mentee......................................................................................................................................3
Mentor Plan.................................................................................................................................3
The Cycle.........................................................................................................................................4
Lessons Learned..............................................................................................................................5
The Impact of This Experience and my Leadership Philosophy.....................................................6

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The Mentee
My mentee was Rachel Lampke.
We mostly met at Starbucks around the SDSU campus.
We met a total of about five times (formally) and about
three times we ran into each other and got to catch up
really quick. We texted each other at least once a week.

Mentor Plan
My approach was to keep things real, relaxed, and to make Ms. Lampke know that she
could tell me anything. For the first meeting I was completely open to wherever she wanted to
meet. She chose Starbucks. I waited until she got there first, then she met me in line, i ordered
first, and told the cashier I was paying for whatever she (Ms. Lampke) wanted. I memorized her
order and EVERY time we met face to face, I had her drink order ready and waiting for her. I felt
that subconsciously it showed that I was caring, motherly, and most importantly she felt like I
had the upper hand in terms of power.
I waited until our second meeting to talk about her goals. Ms. Lampke is organized and a
great academic with little need of my help. She is the Vice President of LMSA. However, there
were a few items I could help her with. For example, her goals were to 1. Find a summer
internship or a job, and 2. She wanted to find the right study abroad programs. Her long term

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goals are to find a good company fit, and to focus more on her self-savvy skills. I helped her with
her goals by offering advice when she asked for it, and I would keep asking and texting her
abouther internship status.

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The Cycle

After she
told me
where her
"performan
ce" was, I
would give
her advice
as to where
to go from
there.

At the
beginning
of every
meeting i
would sum
up where
she was in
her
decisions,
so that we
knew
where her
"performan
ce" was

I
motivated
her by
always
reminding
her about
the end
goal

Laid out
goals in
meeting
two
Met in
relaxed
settings

The
Cycl
e
I would give
her advice for
future classes,
and I would
kindly guide
her in
directions for
what she
should do over
the summer

Tried to
meet in
person
about every
two weeks,
we kept in
contact
every week.

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Lessons Learned
Even though this was a peer-mentor assignment, I felt like I might have been too relaxed
as a mentor. I regret not being as professional as I could have been. For example, I should have
had a chart with a set schedule of when I wanted her to get things done. In addition, there were a
couple of times that I tried to meet with her, and she cancelled on me. I should have let her know
that it was not okay to keep blowing me off. However, I tried to be Mommy Mentor and I let it
go, because I know she was busy. I did not want to be harsh with her because I wanted her to like
me.
We did get a great friendship out of this assignment, so I am happy about that. I felt that
at least I learned how to get people to open up and talk. Yet, I need to learn how to do it without
being such a pushover.
I learned that I need to have more of a set schedule when something is important. When
Ms. Lampke said she needed help finding out what she wanted to do with her summer, I should
have had deadlines of when I wanted her to get things done.

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The Impact of This Experience and my Leadership

Philosophy
This experience has taught me that I need to work on my sense of authority. I need to be
more conferrable with confrontation and be a little sterner. Obviously, people can see that I care
about them, and that I want what is in their best interest. Using that knowledge, I have to trust
that that is enough and create expectations for them.
In the future, as I grow into management roles, I want to have a signal that now is the
time to be serious. I am a realistic person who likes to keep things light. Yet, I cannot always
keep things light and simple as easy as that is. So maybe if I have a place in the hotel where we
sit and talk for serious matters, it will help indicate that I am serious, or even working on a
serious tone. I am a big push-over, but I have to learn how to hold my stance.
My leadership philosophy is still that you have to work as a team in order to be
successful. However, that does not mean it is all easy, fun and relaxing. I have to work on being a
head coach, instead of just being another teammate.
For this project, I felt like I did not want to be so harsh because I wanted her to feel (for
the most part) that we were on the same playing field. My mentor did that with me, and it made
me open up more. So as a result, I wanted to do the same for my mentee, which was easier said
than done.
When I am in my career, I feel like I will hold my stance more because yes, I want
people to like me, but I still know that I need to buckle down when necessary and be strong.