[Jaine Perotti]

I want to mention another factor that you should consider in the decision concerning post-high school mentoring:

The decision of whether or not to mentor after high school is a very tough one. It is something that I am currently struggling to decide now, even though I am only a junior. I have gotten so much from FIRST that I too feel the desire to give something back. It has changed my life; now I want to use FIRST as an instrument to change the lives of others - positively. I am not currently not sure about whether or not I want to mentor, or volunteer, or work for FIRST in some other way after I graduate. However, I know that a major influence on my decision will be the impact that my FIRST work (whatever it may be) has on my academic career.

My main concern is maintaining a balance between FIRST and my academic work once I go to college. This year, I struggled greatly to contribute to my team AND maintain my grades. As the end of the quarter neared, I was WAY far behind in my work (my closest friends are familiar with the struggle I went through). It has made me think a little bit harder about what the effect of MENTORING would be on my grades, let alone being a student on a team. If the combined pressure of academics and FIRST mentorship cause my grades to slip, it would be foolish of me to continue mentoring and neglect my schoolwork. The grades that I recieve in college are going to be very important to me for my entire life. I do not want to mess up, or do less than I could have, because I was mentoring a FIRST team during college. My future employers will not know or care about what other committments I had during the time period that I recieved those grades. They will not understand about FIRST, and will not be sympathetic if I did poorly because of it.

My one word of warning to you about mentoring after high school: please, PLEASE make sure that you won't be sacrificing your academic status so that you can mentor a team. You have your whole life ahead of you to mentor a team - it would be best to give your education and career a solid foundation, or at least make sure that you are not in over you head - before you start to mentor a FIRST team. As many can attest to, mentorship is a VERY big committment.

As for the respect issue...

One thought comes to my mind. Earlier this season, a student who graduated from our team last year came back to visit us and mentored us for a few sessions in programming. I do not think that this student fully realized what it meant to be a mentor, because they acted as if they were still a high school student on the team - and in my opinion, did not set the best example for the other students as to how a good mentor conducts themselves. This person acted somewhat immature and was not always as constructive as they could have been. So my word of advice - (and this will help you gain respect) Do not behave as if you were still a student on the team. Set a mature, responsible, and constructive example. If a student treats you disrespectfully, respond with maturity, and treat them as if you were the adult, not the student. If you can take a position of leadership that shows you are a mature person, a MENTOR, and not a student - you will begin to gain the respect of your students. One other thing that you can do is talk to the other adult mentors on the team, and explain to them how you feel. Ask them if maybe they can talk to the team about what it means to have respect for other team members - students and mentors alike. Take this time to build the team, set precedents of respect, and become more functional in terms of the way members treat one another. Take your leadership position and make the most of it by transforming your team for the better.

Hope this helped,
-- Jaine