Becoming A Mentee

To be a good mentor you have to have great qualities like being helpful and being really good at giving good constructive criticism. Whomever you're mentoring should receive information that is both positive and negative. You want to makes sure you give pros and cons so that your mentee can learn from them. (Patterson) Some social activities that you can do in mentoring programs include talking about life experiences, having lunch together, and visiting the mentor's home for a bonding experience. (Wexler) Although most mentoring programs usually have short durations and are claimed to be a “waste of money,” they are beneficial to girls because they prevent peer pressure, diseases, and pregnancies; encourage girls to be more mannerable, respectful, and ladylike; and results in kids being more likely to graduate high school and attend college.

Community of practice: a group of individuals sharing a common work practice over a period.

This study is limited to the freshman mentor program at one high school in a 30 high school district located in Maryland. Data was collected from a representative group of mentors. Interviews were limited to discussion of the role of the mentor in working with the freshmen mentees. Although many high schools have freshmen mentor programs, each school develops a unique program to fit the needs of the students feeding into their school. Data was collected from a small representative group of mentors and they were all

Clutterbuck & Megginson (1999, p.17) describe mentoring as being like ‘standing in front of a mirror with a trusted other, who can help you see things that you do not know how to see, or that have become too familiar for you to notice’. It is a helping relationship between an individual with potential and an individual with expertise. This multi-dimensional relationship is a partnership between those in similar roles, who can support each other. A number of roles of the mentor have been listed by Bolton (2010, p.193): role model, enabler, teacher, encourager, counsellor, befriender, facilitator, coach, confidante, supporter and ‘un-learner’. To be successful roles and responsibilities of those involved need to be clear and they need to be matched to each other and understand expectations of them.

An advantage of mentoring is that it helps to acclimatise less successful workers to the job and organisational requirements. By having a "go to" person to ask questions, discuss scenarios and generally learn the nuances of the company, the mentee can become a productive member much more quickly and never feel that he has nowhere to turn for help. The mentee can gain the sense of achievement that comes from the mentor's feedback and assessment of his progress. The mentee's quest to gain the mentor's approval can serve as a motivating force to continue to improve his performance. The mentor can gain satisfaction from knowing that she is helping an individual and can take a measure of pride in her accomplishments. For a mentor that has already achieved a great deal of success, she can look at the process as a way of "giving back”.

"Mentoring is a special quality, skill set and attitude," she says. "The benefits are not only between the mentor and mentee, but the future generations."

If your individual does not succeed at first you have to stay positive and determined. "A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work." Colin Powell (brainyquotes.com). If you are not determined to help your individual, your "dream" of having him/her succeed will not happen. A mentor should always have determination regardless of the situation. Determination is a trait that all mentors should aspire to have.

It takes a lot of commitment to be a mentor, an appropriate meeting time needs to be discussed between mentor and mentee so that it doesn't conflict with family, school, and/or social life. Mentors are usually provided for: troubled teens, young children with busy parents that work, children or teens with special needs such as Autism or ADHD, or anyone under or over the age of 18 who needs to have one on one time with someone they trust and can talk to confidentially.

A mentor however has to understand his role and not get caught up with his mentee too personally and possibly emotionally as this can affect his judgement in giving out advice to the mentee in vital situations.

Mentoring Overview "Leadership mentoring is the formal and informal social construction of professional performance expectations developed through the purposeful interactions between aspiring and practicing principals in the context of authentic practice. This interactive mentoring develops collegial relationships, fosters reciprocal learning between expert and novice, expands leadership capacity and creates a community of practice in which steadily improving role performance is the ultimate goal"(Browne-Ferrigno and Muth, 2006, p. 276). Mentoring focuses more on the informal role in which the mentor provides feedback to the student based on future career planning, interpersonal growth for future success. One-on-one mentoring has been documented as playing a significant in advancing leadership development capabilities in mentees. "[Managers] often motivate their students, unlock previously unrealized skills, and help them achieve world-class levels" (Arnove, 2010, p.47). Mentorship is a personal development teachers have with their students. Mentoring relationships are relatively easy to establish, but keeping the mentee motivated and letting them know long term it's a great transition into young adulthood.

The community of practice framework emphasizes two central principles: firstly, knowledge relies on experience or situated learning; and secondly, the experience is comprehended via an in-depth reflective practice (Lave &Wenger, 1991; Matusov, Bell, & Rogoff, 1994; Roberts, 2006). The first principle of community of practice ‘situated learning’ is known as “socio-cultural phenomenon rather than an isolated activity in which individual acquires knowledge from decontextualized body of knowledge” (Barab & Duffy, 2000; as cited in Buysse, 2003, p. 267). This principle renders a change that stimulates forces for collective and collaborative learning among the member of communities of practices (Mittendorff, Geijsel, Hoeve, de Laat, & Nieuwenhuis,

All levels of the UXers can serve as mentors and mentees. Skills and experiences at every level are valuable learning opportunities. People can change choose to serve as either a mentee or mentor or both.

Through my mentorship experiences, I have discovered many different things about myself. I learned that I am good at encouraging others to push themselves. I also realized that I am someone who is goal orientated and like to have a focus during all my discussions. During every mentorship meeting, I like to have an agenda for the meeting and a focus for our deliberations. I also like to revisit goals my mentees had set during the first session and writing new goals, as I measure success through results. I realized that I am good at encouraging others as over time I have seen my mentees speak more often and try to communicate effectively without looking for words on their phones. An interesting thing I discovered about myself through my mentorship experience is that I always thought that since I had traveled to many places around the world and had a keen interest in learning about other cultures, I was culturally well rounded. However, conversations with my mentees made me realize that many of the things I thought I knew about cultures such as Chinese culture were solely concepts introduced to me from a tourist point of view. My mentees shared stories with me about television in China, and how the channels they could access were government controlled. They also explained the Chinese job world to me while discussions ways to write a resume for summer jobs. They told me how children from wealthy families and upper-middle-class families are discouraged to do part time jobs, as it

Learning mentors tend to work on a one to one level or in small numbered groups, a learning mentor must be a good listener, be able to encourage and motivate and act as a role model and encourage the build up of a mutually respectful relationship (Hayward, 2001).

With the development of the more organic and less formal organisational structures the role of mentors has shifted with these changes. Unlike previously where mentors where seen as formal trainers who taught newcomers the processes and got them acquainted with the cultures and the systems within the organisation. Which required good interpersonal skills and a good knowledge of the activity or tasks the mentee would have to undertake, and be able to effectively relay or demonstrate the tasks or activities to the mentee. As opposed to more recently where a mentor would have to be more of an emotional counselor and demonstrate more skills than were traditionally required from