Awareness

Last week we were talking about self-awareness and talked about our values. This I found one of the hardest things to do because it is very hard for me to rank my values. I feel everything is very important to me so I didn't want to put a number to it and when talking to everyone else they felt the same way. Also, I feel that my values change with time, on certain days certain values are more important than others and on some days certain values don't even matter to me or are unaffected.

On my list in class I had put my friends above my family and the only reason I do this is because almost all my friends come to me with their problems and ask for help and my family doesn't. I think the best way I can state how I feel about this is that my friends are an active value and my family is a passive value. I look out for both but one takes a little more work.

Learn about yourself

So last week we did Myers-Briggs. This was my 4th time doing it so I'm pretty positive about my type now. It was kind of interesting because this is the first time this many people were the same type as me. Also, I found it kind of funny that Taylor and I had the same type, coincidence? I think not. No wonder we got along so good as kids. We have a lot of introverts in our group this year too so I guess I'm going to have to work on being quiet so other people have a chance to talk. I feel I've been doing a good job at this so far because I want to allow the first-timers a chance to input and learn.

I'm still working on getting everyone together outside of class but I've been so busy with classes and such that it's been hard. I dropped a class last week however though so I will hopefully find some time to work on planning something.

Relationships

Hi All,

Building relationships with the students is what I would have to say the first step in our mentoring process. This can be really easy with most of the students you will have and be a big challenge with some of the other ones. Of course it is easiest to build a relationship with students that have common interests and situations, especially ones with similar majors because they will come to you asking about classes. Right now I still talk to on a daily basis four of my students, a couple of them because I help them with classes, and the other two because I just built a good friendship with them.

Because of a few situations that I have seen from last year I feel I need to address a few things. First, that it is not okay to have a personal(in a boyfriend/girlfriend sense) with a student while they are part of the seminar class. For my sake I will say this wasn't me but I did see that this creates a ton of problems and extra baggage that is not necessary. Just avoid it. Second, students might happen to ask you to buy alcohol for them if you are of age. This is obviously very wrong, the best way to approach the situation would be to remind them of your position and why you are around.

These situations can make most people very uncomfortable and many people tend to go a little overboard when dealing with such things. My best advice would be to handle it in a way that is discrete and makes sense, try not to blow things out of proportion just because your uncomfortable and your emotions get involved.

By now I'm sure everyone can see that my writing can be a bit sporadic and hard to understand. I do my best and feel that if I just type what I think I don't sensor anything. Let me know if this becomes a problem.


Thanks,
Kris

First Reflective Post

Hi All,


So I would first like to state that I'm not completely sure which chapter I am supposed to "reflect" on so I'm just going to do both. Since this is my second time through this book and this class I'm going to instead share on past experiences and how I've applied the reading to actual mentoring and give advice and tips on mentoring in general. This book is very good at being real world practical because it actually relates to situations you will encounter.

Becoming a peer mentor has definitely shaped the person I am now. People who knew me last year before the class started have definitely seen a change in the way I act and the way I approach situations. I've always been hardworking and have always had a good drive in taking care of my responsibilities, but before becoming a peer mentor I applied these things to myself and not to others. Then Debra asked me to apply to become a mentor and I decided it would be a great way to get involved on campus so I decided it was a good idea.


Helping students transition to college isn't to bad for the group as a whole, but you will have some students that will have a pretty difficult time adjusting with the new surroundings. Each student as you all could probably guess will have their own special situation from being extremely homesick to having a little to much fun being reponsible for themselves, each will seem to fall behind. The hard part is finding out how to approach them about it so you can help. The best feeling in the world though is when you see them come out of their problems and start their college experience in a positive way and that you helped them get to this point.

Since I am not the best at this whole blogging thing yet I will end here and say that I am excited to see what this semester will bring and that I am excited to get to know all of you.

Sincerely,
Kris