[Oblarg]

What were some of the largest adjustments you had to make while undergoing this transition?

Far-and-away, learning to take a hands-off approach except where absolutely necessary. This is a bigger thing for veteran teams than younger teams in which more hands-on work by mentors is required to keep the team functioning, but in general your ultimate, ideal goal as a mentor should be to ask questions to get the students thinking. Your job is not to build the robot. Your job is to facilitate the students' building of the robot. That is a fundamentally different job, and it takes some getting used to.

What lessons did you learn from your first year of mentoring?

Being a mentor does not mean you should be afraid to ask someone else when you don't know the answer.
Being a mentor is not the same as being in a managerial role. Your job is to teach, not to micromanage.
Many students have good ideas but tend not to share them due to shyness; your job as a mentor is in large part to make sure those ideas are heard.

Have you tried mentoring through digital media (ex: Skype video chat, emails, etc.), and if so, how? How successful is this method?

Can't comment.

What is it like suddenly belonging to a new team? Did you carry over many of the things you learned from your high school/previous team?

For me, this wasn't so rough of a transition; I did feel fairly conflicted as I'm still a mentor in some capacity at 449, but 4464 was clearly in greater need of help, and there's another ex-449 mechanics member mentoring them, as well, which kept the atmosphere familiar.

You carry over everything you can - things that worked, things that didn't, etc. A new team does not necessarily mean that you should make the same mistakes over again. There are many mistakes which need only be made once by anyone, ever. On the flip-side, there are some things that students will only learn by seeing them go wrong. Knowing the difference is crucial, and difficult.

Who or what was your inspiration to mentor after high school?

FRC did a lot for me in high school. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to help it do the same for others.