November 15- Reflection Activity

I am a mentor because: I know how much I valued the mentors I had when I was a first-year student. I
was assigned an excellent mentor in my first year through Connecting4Success. Three years later, we still
keep in contact, and she’s been one of the biggest resources to be throughout my degree. I also
remember how much I looked up to my mentor Mentorship and Learning mentor in my first year
Introduction to Canadian Government and Politics course. As a fourth-year student, I now feel like I’m in
a position to share what I’ve learned with the incoming students.

I can be a mentor outside of practicum: for any other students in my program. While I am mentoring in
Political Science, I am an International Relations major, more specifically. We are a small group of
students within Political Science and I would like to offer some representation for the lower year
students. I also feel as though I can play a mentorship role within student groups that I am a part of. I am
a highly involved member of Enactus Windsor, and I feel as though I could provide a mentorship style
role for some of our newer members like some of the alumni did for me when I was new to the
organization. That was one of the biggest reasons as to why I continued to be involved with the team.
Once you feel like you have a support system and people who are willing to help you succeed, it makes
you want to carry on that much more.

What makes me a good mentor: I always try to put myself in the shoes of my mentees and think about
how they are feeling. I remember how nervous and unsure of myself I was in my first semester of first
year. I’ve done a good job over the last few years of growing my confidence and leadership skills, but
university in general can be very intimidating when starting out. I think I relate to them well. I always try
and remember what helped me feel better when I was in their position in first-year.

What are the challenges: At the beginning of the semester, attendance was an issue among the
mentees? Since then, they’ve gotten much better. One of the things I do always wonder when we’re
doing breakout activities is if they feel as though they’re learning things. My mentees have grown closer
as a group and seem a lot more comfortable asking questions not just about the practicum course, but
about other things as well. They do always seem pretty receptive to what we’re doing I just wish I could
get a better idea of what they find most helpful.

Comments about last week’s activity: I think overall our activity went well. Basically, we had them do a
group story-telling activity using pictures we gave them. Each group approached the activity a little
differently. We ended up tailoring the way we proceeded with the activity depending on the group.
Some groups were very collaborative and required very little assistance, while others required us to
intervene more.

Comments about practicum: Our practicum instructor structures our breakout sessions rather heavily.
It’s very nice to know what is expected of us to cover throughout the semester; however, sometimes I
feel like I’m unable to address what the mentees are struggling with the most at the time because I am
expected to address an assigned topic. On the other hand, I certainly see the importance of touching on
various topics and making sure all the groups are covering the same things.