[ay2b]

Briefly:

1) I think that once any student on a FIRST team graduates, they should NOT be a mentor for the same team they were just on. I won't get into whether a college freshman should be a mentor or not (I think it depends on many factors). The transition from a student to a mentor is significant, but many (likely even most) of the teammates who knew you as a student will continue to see and treat you as such, even after you graduate. Unless you go away for a while, and then come back.

2) The role of a mentor is to provide guidance. Most teams that I have seen work through some level of consensus. It sounds like you saw a void, and you stepped in to fill that void, which is good. Now you need to convince a sufficient number of the rest of the team that it was a void that needed to be filled, and that your solution is the best option of those available.

Often this is easier for adults to do than students, because many people give more weight to the opinion of adults. Similarly, it is likely easier for someone who has been with the group for a while than for someone who is new to the group.


So my advice is:
- find a new team, where the people on the team will first meet and get to know you as a mentor, not as a student
- expect that in your first year, you will have to spend some time building up your reputation as a knowledgeable experienced contributor
- look for areas that you can step in and help out, and then do so
- after everyone who was a student on your team while you were a student on that team has graduated, consider going back to help out there, if you want