The most influential mentor I have had was a teacher in high school who taught courses ranging from hospitality and tourism to entrepreneurship. The way his class worked was extremely hands on, so instead of a bulk of lecture type classes, we focused on real world problem solving. I remember being incredibly frustrated with him whenever I would ask how to do something and his response would be, “figure it out.” However, over the three-year course of having him as my mentor, I realized how self-sufficient and capable I was to handle anything thrown my way. His guidance and belief in me to take on responsibilities is what truly guided me down the right path to be the independent person I am today – a gift I will forever be grateful for. The confidence that came as a result of this sort of mentorship led me to be a mentor myself. As a transfer student at Boston University, I went through many obstacles in order to feel connected to my community right away. Without the freshman year experience, you are not acquainted with a large number of other first year students eager to become friends. However, I got through this obstacle and ended up creating a community here on campus through the opportunities that have been presented to me. Given the luck I had, I decided to be a peer mentor for a First-Year Experience course for transfer students offered in the College of Arts and Sciences. As a mentor I reassured my peers of their capabilities to succeed, and led my discussions with the hope of fostering confidence needed in order to step outside their comfort zones and to build their own communities. Building relationships is one of the key factors of excelling not only within your time in college, but for the rest of your life. So to be able to build relationships with these students and to lead them down a path of self-sufficiency, similar to how my mentor led me, I hope they will be able to go out in the world with conviction to continue creating the networks and relationships that will lead them to succeed.
