Personal Narrative: Becoming A Mentor

As a former mentor for ABC Learn, a non-profit agency providing additional literacy training to at-risk students, I was taught to take pride in building a strong relationship with the students and families who face numerous problems from social and economic integration.

When registration time rolled around in fall 2015, I only needed 12 hours to graduate in May; however, I knew I would be bored and yearned for a class that was meaningful and would end my college career on a positive note. When Dr. May mentioned the mentoring at-risk youth class I was hooked. Although he tried to talk everybody out of it, I knew that this was going to be a perfect fit for me. I have always enjoyed working with youth, whether it was through coaching cheerleading, volunteering in the local elementary school, or spending afternoons at a halfway house for abused and neglected children. By signing up for the mentoring program I was able to try something I had never tried before— using my love for youth to create a lifelong one-on-one

“Oh, my goodness,” “Wasn’t it so funny when Mr. Speranza split his pants in class today?”

In the fifth grade at Britton Elementary we had a ballroom class disguised as a mentoring program. Not only did we learn how to salsa and waltz but we also learned how to respect and take in leadership. The guys had to come to the girl and ask her the proper way to dance and the girl had to politely say yes. This is how we started class everyday. In December of 2008 we performed at Rose State College and had a wonderful time.

I was surprised when I learned that I didn’t have only one mentor, but I had three mentors. I was anxious as to who was going to be my mentor and felt scared that I wouldn’t be able to create a connection. One of my mentors had work that day, so I had to arrive a little earlier to have a quick talk. I thought this was going to be my only mentor but it wasn’t. I also, have Dani Barajas and Adrian Camacho as mentors.

I have been in the Marine Corps for roughly three and a half years and throughout that time I have done many things. Most of the things that I have done were with Combat Logistics Battalion 26. For three years, I worked with that unit through work ups and a deployment and I have seen and done many unique things. However, nothing I did with CLB 26 felt fulfilling, but that all changed when I changed units to CLB 8.

The last few months I have had the opportunity to share and mentor Mr. Ney Antonio Garcia relating to the Information Technology (IT) field and the United States Army Reserve. Mr. Garcia is a quiet, hardworking and knowledgeable individual.

With the mid-semester already here, my mentor and I have fit into a routine where he expects our time together. Jason has seemed to have ease with excitement and is accustomed to having me as a mentor now. However, I feel as though since now he knows what days I mentor for him, this has caused some issues, as well as perks between us working together. I feel that I have been now doing this long enough to experience the best of both worlds when it comes to enjoying time with your mentee, as well as experiencing quite difficult moments and situations while mentoring. I am now accustomed to the rules and procedures that every student follows in the classroom, and in the hallways and on the playground as well. I am far into this program to better

I have cloudy, yet strong memories of my mentor's figure. My mentor will start by writing that she was the most important person in my life. My memories begin at the age of six, when I took their hands and together we came to my school every morning. He conveyed so much happiness that my first unfortunate class day did not seem real. All the children were sad or screaming and I only listened to the advice of the man who spoke slowly and with angelic touch. His passion to see me happy and become a great professional. Its appearance, life-form values and responsibility will be unforgettable memories.

Response: While my mentor spends most of his time at his body shop in Dallas, he works at toyota at Dallas. My uncle enjoys fixing car, it’s his high on life. Being able to spend time to help someone because they can't do it gives him a sense of happiness.Despite his great enthusiasm for fixing cars, nothing compares to having his own comfortable space where he can reflect to himself about anything and everything.

Unfortunately, I know all too well about terrible training experiences. There is nothing worse than unprepared trainers who do not know how to utilize the technology or how to train other people. In my case, I was amazed at how far I got in the finance business when I was hired as an assistant manager of a store location, my second day of training the manager quit and they never sent anyone to replace her. Subsequently, they moved me into the manager position, and I taught myself everything via a handbook. Honestly, I would have never thought that such a rocky start would have lead me to be a District Manager over nineteen stores, all brand new locations, and then moved to a Regional position in charge of seventy-one stores. Even with the promotions,

During my tutoring session on Monday I was not able to get through everything that I had planned. I do not know if it was because my student was late getting out of lunch or because he was nervous having Emily there to observe our tutoring session. Even though it did not go as planned, it all worked out the way it was supposed to. I started the session by going over sight words with my buddy. We went over seven of the sight words that he missed last week. These words were: fast, found, which, gave, call, made, and these. The only two words that he missed were made and these. After going over the sight words, I gave my student a sticker and told him how proud I was of him. This week my buddy said that he wanted to read a dinosaur book, luckily

In taking the only test, I did not take it as seriously as I should have. I have worked in Ohio, Arizona, New York and now Japan in the field of counseling and social work. With those years, I have had the unfortunate opportunity of being a mandated reporter on several occasions.

Imagine falling of a chair. Not that bad right? Now, imagine falling of a chair in front of the whole cafeteria. Funny? Yes. Painful? Definitely. So embarrassing that you hid in your teacher’s classroom for the remaining time of the school day? Sounds like me! After many years of mental preparation, physiological therapy, and complete avoidance of using chairs in front of others, I was finally able to overcome my tragedy. Like every other day, I ardently waited for lunch time to arrive. As soon as the bell rang, I ran to the cafeteria. I sat, I ate, and just when I was about to throw my food away…

As a Venezuelan international student, sharing my voice in English has been a challenge. When I first came to the Community College of Aurora, fear clearly affected my learning process and social life. As I struggled with the language barrier, I received a call from the school to attend a Student Government meeting, where I first met Kathryn Sturtevant. Since then, she strived to discover and understand my professional and personal goals and has pushed me to overcome challenges that have shaped me as a better human being. As advisor of the Student Government Association in which I am Vice-President, Kathryn has incorporated a variety of trainings such as Strengths Quest and True Colors that are meaningfully aimed to improve and empower not only myself but