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Unread 07-04-2014, 10:19
Knufire Knufire is offline
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
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Team Role: College Student
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Rookie Year: 2010
Location: Terre Haute, IN
Posts: 746
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Re: Mentoring as a College Freshman

As a few people mentioned, it really is unique for every person.

After graduating high school, I moved to Indiana (~6 hours away) for college. My plan was to take a year off as many suggest and do SAE, but when I got to Rose, there was already an effort to start a rookie team as I was planning to do my sophomore year. Knowing myself, there was no way I wouldn't get involved.

I didn't find the transition from student to mentor all that difficult. There are probably several factors that led into this; I came from a team that heavily emphasizes older students teaching younger students, I was mentoring a whole new group of kids I'd never met before and that were new to the program, and the entire local FRC community was completely different than the one I had competed in as a student. The fresh start made the transition easy for me, but I can understand how it would be difficult for someone mentoring their old high school team.

There is quite a difference between being a student and being a mentor (though this might be a byproduct of the two different team cultures I was a part of). In high school, I didn't really have to worry about much except robot and outreach. As a mentor, you see a completely different side to running a team: logistics, liability, relationships with your sponsors, etc. In my case, there was an entire side to mentoring that I very much underestimated.

The time required definitely took a toll on the rest of my life though. My winter quarter GPA was much lower than I would've liked (definitely could have been worse though), and now spring has turned into catch up time. On the other hand, I was able to help start a team that has exceeded every expectation of mine of what they could accomplish, and I couldn't be prouder of them. Was it worth it? I guess only time will tell.
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