[runneals]

Our team doesn't allow freshmen to mentor strickly due to the fact that school should be put first.
In regards to mentoring in general, I believe that the difference between being a bad mentor and being an amazing mentor is being a leader and being a facilitator. Bad mentors are like a roller coaster where they provide constant feedback/leadership to keep the team on a perfect track. Good mentors are like the rides with the middle track and only step in and provide students guidance when asked or to prevent the students from crashing off of the general track in a facilitator type position. Personally for me I found it hard to mentor my team even being gone for 3 years after I graduated. I was offering ideas throughout build season, which I really need to work on doing better. The ideal perfect mentor would not win a Woodie Flowers award because they shouldn't be doing anything for the team. The students need to do it all.

To echo the multiple people who encouraged volunteering. This is the easiest thing you can do and commit very little time to it. Volunteer for ALL first events in your area that you can (not just FRC), as they are usually in need of volunteers and can use the help of someone experienced!