Goal: An Alliance for Life: Understanding the Long-term Value of a Peer-Mentoring System
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Title: An Alliance for Life: Understanding the Long-term Value of a Peer-Mentoring
Starting university might be overwhelming for some students, along with an increased caseload of studies or being away from home for the first time. Peer mentoring is a great way for students at any level or age to connect and put themselves a few steps ahead when it comes to their education, their careers, and their lives.
The peer mentoring system typically takes students who are third- or fourth-year undergraduate students, or postgraduate students pursuing higher degrees, and matches them with a first- or second-year student in the same
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The mentors can give them valuable insight, educational help and mental support and encouragement to keep moving ahead. They can meet new people, experience new situations, and set the stage for a better academic future — first-year students in a study at The University of Western Ontario who participated in a full-year peer-mentoring program had significantly higher final grades than students who were not mentored.
Older students who are serving as mentors not only have a great experience in university, but also have a significant piece they can add to their CV. They are challenged to take what they’ve learned and think outside the box to explain and instruct the students who are being mentored. This helps to create a well-rounded education, and a person who is able to view a situation from a perspective different than their own typically has greater success academically and
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A peer mentor pulls from the same ideas of more experienced individuals in the same demographic helping someone newer to the field.
Students in a peer-mentoring program have an advocate and supporter to push them to a higher level of education and study, encouraging them to move ahead with their formal education, whether that is to push themselves a little harder and achieve things they didn’t think were possible or to pursue a post-grad degree.
What is unique about a peer mentoring program is that these students now have a connection as they enter the workforce, and an advocate who can serve as a reference or referral for future employment opportunities. Maintaining the relationship beyond the university is a move that makes sense for both parties.
Students will be in similar stages of life and may develop a long-term friendship that will transfer into other areas of their lives.
As the mentored students graduate, they will already know someone working professionally in the same or similar field. This will help them as they are looking for jobs or need a reference for their
Mentors and mentees each benefit from successful relationships with one another due to the newfound success for the mentee and the the satisfaction reward for the mentor by seeing a person they guided make an achievement. Success from one of these relationships was found in a study conducted during 2015, where 1,139 students from 11 years and above in different school districts served as subjects. In the study, half of the adolescents received mentors while the other half would receive one following the study. After students with a mentor spent time with them, the students were provided with a survey in which students who reported their relationship with their mentor was “close” or “somewhat close” had widespread academic improvement. As a result of the experiment, it is evident that a significant number of students benefit from a mentor being by their side. If the mentee sensed an emotional connection with the mentor, that was all they needed to succeed in school, even though academic-related tasks may not have been on the agenda for the mentors and mentees during their time together
Spencer, R., Collins, M. E., Ward, R., & Smashnaya, S. (2010). Mentoring for young people
Mentoring can be that hand that reaches down and pulls you out of the pit. Mentoring can change lives forever and create permanent relationships. Mentoring can help a child get on the right track if they do not have someone else to help them. Whether they have grown up without active parents, have gotten into trouble from time to time, or even if they are a straight A student, the youth needs mentoring. It will build a country that has a solid foundation in which the current youth of America will one day lead. Mentoring proves that “regardless of background, [all children] are equipped to achieve their dreams” (Bruce and
I have been a mentee in three mentoring programs and I understand from firsthand experience how important mentors have been in my life. Each relationship was very different; one of my mentors was about two generations older than me, while my two more recent mentors have been only a few years older than me.
Each semester assigned with two classes, consisting of twenty-five students has provided me the opportunity to assist students with various skills ranging from communication, email etiquette, and most relevant in college, time management. As a peer mentor I’m able to serve as a role model and assist students in reaching their academic success, and this valuable and rewarding opportunity has furthered my determination and interests in working with our youth. Mentoring has allowed me to strengthen my coaching and leadership skills by working with a group of diverse students. This experience has given me new insight, and questions raised by my mentees have helped me to take a critical look at how I was leading my life and what areas I needed
A good mentor cans a new job applicant up to speed quicker and helps with answers to questions that may arise. Another sign of a good mentorship program that both parties involved can learn from each other. An organization having a mentorship program can assist with employee retention because it will foster employees feeling valued by the company and this in return develops employee loyalty to the organization (Mathis & Jackson, 2017). This can be a win-win situation for the company because employees who feel they are valued tend to take pride in their work and increase
Both counselling and mentoring utilise a lot of the same skills (Clutterbuck and Megginson, 1999), confusing people about which one they need. They are both based on the needs of the client, with an agenda set by the client and share the key aim of attempting to enable clients to help themselves. However, mentoring’s structure is much more informal, sessions can be spontaneous, mainly only when the mentee needs support or advice, unlike counselling where sessions are predetermined and more regular. Additionally, mentoring does not attempt to resolve deep underlying issues, instead it is the acquisition of wisdom to help the mentee progress. Another major difference between the two is that a dual relationship between a mentor and mentee is more accepted and beneficial than between a therapist and client (Bluckert, 2005). As the relationship is slightly different, a mentor is able to provide direction or advice, unlike a counsellor, who enables not advises. Overall, the two may share similar skills, but have very different
Most importantly however, mentoring enables aspiring employees to reach their potential and become future leaders of the organization. Again, employee perception of an investment in their future will produce a compelling retention incentive. Overall, mentoring is a key retention strategy, especially for the young
Seeing something from a different perspective really helps you gather evidence about an event or a case. That's why the judge of a case always like as many witnesses as possible. They like to see the facts and the lies. In school teachers may have you write about an event from a perspective of someone else's point of view. This is so that an event in the past that may have been bad, you could be writing it from a perspective of someone who thought it was a good event. If you walk in another man’s shoes, you could see things you thought were right were actually wrong or vise
When I found out that I would be a mentor for next year, I knew I would be playing an important role in the lives of the incoming freshmen. Being a mentor for the Luckyday program not only means that one will be helping in the transition from high school, but also impacting the lives of the incoming freshmen. This six-week class has given me insight and a foundation that I could build on to increase my potential to be an effective mentor. I will also incorporate the information and resources that has been given to me in order to help my mentees succeed. During next year, I plan to use my experiences with my mentor, the ten characteristics of servant leadership, and what I have learned in UNV 312 to guide me in assisting my mentees in the transition
You succinctly described the positive impact mentors have on the lives of youth. As you note, mentors provide positive adult interaction with youth that need help with social and behavior skill building. Therefore, mentors like you husband fill the void of absentee parental figures by being supportive and instilling much needed accountability and discipline. While extra curricular sports are examples of tested positive mentorship, community based mentorship programs also have a great impact within lower income communities. Programs such as after school tutoring that enable peer to peer socialization and Big Brother Big Sister that provides one on one interaction are also effective deterrents of juvenile delinquency. Too often juvenile delinquency
Mentoring program becomes instrumental and breakdown barriers as employees are interacting and carrying out the organization’s vision. This allows employees to interact with employees of different cultures and backgrounds with the goal that one will learn more about the individual.
One of my favorite extracurricular activities was peer tutoring. My freshman year we moved from Virginia to South Carolina. I had always been a great student and math was my favorite subject. However, at my new school I began failing at Math. I struggled through out the entire year with no support other then from my parents. I passed but barely. After that year my parents were determined to find a better school for me.
Garvey (2004) stated that under educational, social or other occupational area, the phenomenon called “helping” grows day by day. Mentoring and coaching are two of the three main terms to describe the “helping” behaviors. Mentoring is regarded as an educational process which gets help from a more experienced colleague from the same industry or profession (Dexter, Dexter, & Irving,
Many young people just need to be motivated and given a fair chance at success. Young people need mentors to help them find their way and to help them stay focused. Mentors play an intricate roll in your lives and are sort of liaisons between your parents or guardians and your educators.