Building relationships in your new college should be a super high priority. I attended fly-in programs the college offered and it helped me build connections with upperclassmen that did prove helpful later in Freshman year. I’d had some reluctance to really analyze what a mentor could help me with, I felt like I could totally ask around and get answers if I wasn’t sure about something. Nevertheless, I did sign up for a mentor with a First Generation-Working Class group on campus that was advertising specific mentoring to first gen students. There was three options: a student (upperclassmen) mentor, a faculty advisor, or both. I opted for the student mentor, I felt like a student could relate more to any questions and concerns I had. So I was put with a sophomore who had also had a mentor and she wanted to let the experience be past down of having another friend that wasn’t necessarily required to be there for you but their job was to be available and be open with us, the mentees. It was a great, productive, solid connection. During the hard times, when pressure came on with academics or the social scene of college was hard to pace, I turned to my mentor to ask for suggestions on how to juggle things without going insane. She laughed and offered me a coffee date to talk about how classes are going and to offer advice on organization and time management. It was always a great breathing time to step out of campus buzz and re-focus on personal needs. Later in the year, it did get harder to find times to meet up but the communication was there and she acknowledge my growth–mentors are basically impromptu motivational speakers, like your own small audience. Of course I’d heard about some pretty bad relationships with others and their mentors, I was definitely thankful my mentor and I clicked. The little moments sum up to the whole meaning of having mentors, when you aren’t sure who to have lunch with or wanted to talk without having to glide above ice breaker topics or when the only solution to stress is a spontaneous coffee date. The power of mentoring really depends on how you click with the person, you could always switch if the match is completely off, but I highly suggest some sort of advisor be a part of your college timeline. As first generation students, we have to acknowledge the need for outside help with the parts of college that are challenging when you haven’t been in a similar situation before, or heard about a similar situation before (and instead bombarded with parental stories of “when I was a kid..”).