Fall Term Reflections
I must admit that I was a little nervous about my first term of graduate mentoring. How would the group of students react to the sessions? How well would I work with my faculty partner? How was I going to keep up with the intensive reading schedule along with my own graduate studies and internships? Would I be able to come up with engaging activities for sessions?
I was relieved to find that I had been assigned to a professor who had a good deal of experience with the University Studies program and who expected a lot of his students. I was also pleased to find that the group of students who remained after a few weeks were bright, eager, and ready to engage in lively discussions. From the first session, students jumped into the activities with gusto and expressed their needs well. I sought their feedback in order to provide activities in the session which would further develop their understanding of the course material.
After several weeks, I felt that students and the faculty partner were satisfied with their academic progress. However, I had not really addressed social or emotional needs. Thus, I introduced a check in (one of the students called it "A Rose and a Thorn" which I liked) to the start of every session. I found that the students were highly receptive to discussing their lives outside of class, and it built a sense of community that had been lacking in the first few weeks. I also sent out an email to the group providing some of the links to news articles and activities from the sessions, and added a list of university and community resources that students had available to them. I plan to implement both practices in the coming terms of graduate mentoring.
Overall, I am pleased with the engagement and progress of students over the course of my first term of mentoring. I hope that I will be lucky enough to have such a good experience with my next faculty partner and group of students.
I was relieved to find that I had been assigned to a professor who had a good deal of experience with the University Studies program and who expected a lot of his students. I was also pleased to find that the group of students who remained after a few weeks were bright, eager, and ready to engage in lively discussions. From the first session, students jumped into the activities with gusto and expressed their needs well. I sought their feedback in order to provide activities in the session which would further develop their understanding of the course material.
After several weeks, I felt that students and the faculty partner were satisfied with their academic progress. However, I had not really addressed social or emotional needs. Thus, I introduced a check in (one of the students called it "A Rose and a Thorn" which I liked) to the start of every session. I found that the students were highly receptive to discussing their lives outside of class, and it built a sense of community that had been lacking in the first few weeks. I also sent out an email to the group providing some of the links to news articles and activities from the sessions, and added a list of university and community resources that students had available to them. I plan to implement both practices in the coming terms of graduate mentoring.
Overall, I am pleased with the engagement and progress of students over the course of my first term of mentoring. I hope that I will be lucky enough to have such a good experience with my next faculty partner and group of students.