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Unread 30-06-2015, 15:38
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Jorge Ayala Jorge Ayala is offline
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FRC #3478 (LamBot)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Rookie Year: 2010
Location: San Luis Potosí, México
Posts: 53
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Re: Graduate -> Mentor

My team allows and encourages students to come back as mentors. However, not every student is fit to be mentor right away. As someone stated in a previous reply, committed and mature students perform better as mentors. There are some students that cannot cope with studying a degree in engineering and also working 3 or more hours a day with a team; I have seen this.

I graduated from high school and my team lacked mentors. The headcoach of the team spoke with me and asked me to stay, I was not very sure at the time, because of what was said here at Chief Delphi about mentoring as a college student, but I gave it a shot. I turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made. Right now I am about to start my third year of engineering (I study mechatronics engineering) and I have learnt a lot and I have had very great opportunities due to my direct involvement with the corporate sponsors of the team. Also, being able to inspire and help students grow is a great experience that is hard that you find in any other extracurricular activity during college.

However, it is important to mention that it has put some strain on me and during the semester of competition and my grades have not been as good as they could be and in a lot of situations I need some serious help from my friends to understand some things that I miss from my classes, but that has not been a big deal. Even though I have an advantage, my college and my ex-high school are in the exact same place, they are the same institution, so in order to go help my team I only need to go from one building to another. So, I have it easier than other college mentors.

I really think that college mentors are really important, here in Mexico a lot of teams rely on college students to work properly. Also, a college mentor is like an "older brother" to the students of the team and that kind of relation I have seen that it is beneficial to the student in order to get inspired. Every team is different but, I think that college mentors are a good thing to have. If the adult leaders of the team see that someone is mature and responsible enough to mentor, I would offer them the chance to do so.

(Sorry if I made some grammar mistake or something of the sort, English is not my native language)
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