If you’ve ever had a mentor or have been a mentor yourself, odds are that you were able to get some sort of benefit from the experience. In some of my past blog post, I mentioned a program that I became a part of during my first year in college. As a member of the Academic Achievers Program at the University of Houston, I was assigned a mentor to help me transition into my first semester of college.
As a first generation student, I didn’t necessarily have a close mentor who I could share my uncertainties about college with. I knew right away that having a mentor who understood where I was coming from would make my experience as a freshman a lot less intimidating. I decided to look through my campus resources, and I found a place on campus that offered mentoring to freshmen students. The way I knew this program was a good match for me was by going to an open house event they had. Right away I felt comfortable with the students and staff there. I was paired with a mentor who shared a similar degree rout as me. I knew right away that the support network of students at this program would help me succeed. The program not only offered mentoring to its students. It also offered tutoring in a variety of subjects. It even even scholarship money for the students in the program that maintained above a B average GPA.
Getting to know my mentor really helped me figure out the rout that I saw myself pursuing. Now as a I reflect on the things that I learned from by having a mentor, I am certain that they made a lasting impact on me by not letting me go through my first year of college alone. My advice to you is to find the place where you feel most comfortable in and there you will most likely find a mentor that understand your experience and can share valuable information they have learned from being in your shoes at some point in their lives.