My Mentorship Analysis

When I think of mentorship, I think of someone who guides and supports others to achieve their goals. In my opinion, a mentor inspires people around them to work harder and encourages them to succeed. A mentor also provides honest feedback to their mentees and helps them to overcome their limits. To me, a mentor is someone who is passionate about their beliefs and drives people to explore and express themselves.

The idea that the mentor cannot control what the mentee learns and takes away from the relationship is hard for me to agree with. I think that the mentor through an appropriate approach and guidance can convenience the mentee to learn and use the resources provided. If the mentor shows that they are passionate about helping, then

they can cause their mentee to take a lot from the mentorship. If the mentor keeps their mentees on track and sets goals for each session and tracks their progress regularly, then the mentee will be reassured about the mentorship progress and will try to learn and retain more. Through my prior experience as a tutor for high school students, I always made sure that my students learned and succeeded. Many of my students lost track of their goals, but as a tutor, I guided them again towards their goals. I just did not rely on my students to take away what they wanted from the sessions. According to me, every relationship can be made the way we want it to be, therefore I think that mentees can learn and take what is intended from the mentorship.
To prepare for my first mentorship meeting, I decided to create a list of things I wanted to get done during the first session.

The list would help me to stay on track. I planned out a tutorial session which involved introduction, goal setting for the term, and sharing of resources. Before, the meeting I was not sure how my mentees would react with me. I had a large group so I was worried about how they would feel in a bigger group and if they would be comfortable. To prepare myself for the session, I kept on telling myself to make them feel comfortable with me and the others and to make them understand that I am there to help guide them towards their goals. The night before the first session, I imagined how I would feel like as an international student on campus and things I would need to do to succeed in my program and as well as enjoy university life. By putting myself in their place, I was able to come up with a list of programs, resources, and clubs at McMaster that could help them. I was also able to come up with suggestions which I could give them to help them with their communication and writing goals. I tried to think how they would feel, and thought of what I had wished someone would have told me when I started at

McMaster.

During my first mentee meeting, I was initially nervous as I had four mentees compared to the average one or two. However, as I meet them, I got excited about our mentorship experience. Amongst my mentees, I discovered that two wanted to get into the engineering program and the other two wanted to get into the physical sciences. I also learned that two of them at only been in the country for the last two months, while the other two were good friends and attended grade 12 at Columbia College, so they were familiar with Hamilton. When I heard about their different backgrounds, I excepted that they would have different goals. However, they all wanted to improve their communication and writing skills.

The two students who had attended grade 12 in Hamilton explained to me that despite being in the country for a year, their communication skills and writing skills did not improve much as they were always with people from the same background and often spoke their native language. All my mentees were funny and outgoing as they easily got along with each other and after a few minutes they opened up to me as well. During the first tutorial session, we first introduced ourselves and what our current and future goals were and our hobbies or an interesting fact about ourselves. This activity acted as an icebreaker session as we got to know each other and discovered that something each of us liked was badminton and science. This mutual interest helped us bond. Everyone’s name is crucial to them, hence at the start of the session, I asked each of them what their name was and what they preferred, as by calling people by their name one can build a stronger relationship. Further, after the introduction session, I decided to make each of them write down their goals for the term, and we discussed the areas in which they needed support. I also explained to them in what ways I can and cannot assist them. The reason I made them

write down their goals was so that at the end of each month we can see if we have achieved them, this will help us track our progress through the mentorship development. After this, we talked about all the different resources that are available on campus for their academic and recreational needs. I also told them about the welcome week as all of them missed the welcome week. Then we discussed places to see, places to go for volunteering and busing in Hamilton. We also discussed ways through which outside of the classroom they can improve their communication and writing skills. We decided that each of them would meet a new person each day who was not from their social circle and improve their communication. They would also keep a journal where they can document their everyday events to enhance their writing. We also decided that since all of them needed help with linguistics, we could read over the assignment outlines to improve their reading and comprehension skills as I cannot tutor them. We also made plans for our next session and discussed potential activities we can do to work towards our goals. For instance, to improve our communication skills, each week everyone would prepare a summary of a movie or show they watched that weekend or something exciting they did. Finally, we went over the mentorship agreements, so that everyone understood the mentorship process. We were also able to connect with each other, and they responded to the session with eagerness to learn. Their zeal to learn encouraged me to plan more for the upcoming sessions. By planning out the session, I was able to stay on track and discuss important things so that together we can succeed. Also through the goal writing activity as a team we were able to identify the areas they needed to work on and the goals helped them see what their aims were. After my first meeting, I am looking forward to my future sessions with my mentees and want to be the best guide and support I can be to them. To prepare for subsequent meetings, I will read over their goals and develop activities that will help us move towards achieving those goals. During our next meeting, as discussed with my mentees we will first discuss our weekends, and then we will watch a bit of an episode of big bang theory; as they all love it. Then we will write a summary of the episode to work on their writing skills. We will also discuss how their classes and week have been and if they have used any the resources. Further, we will revisit their goals and get updates on their progress in their assignments and university life. We will also discuss any difficulties they are facing and if they have any questions I will answer those. I am anxiously looking forward to my next mentorship session.