Mentor Job Description

[Phalanx]

Several years ago, I wrote this piece for our team to reflect what a Mentor should be. I call it our "Mentor Mission Statement". It's about the type of person, not necessarily skill sets. It applies equally whether you are a Technical Mentor or not.

Team 1089 Mentor Mission Statement:

The role and objective of a mentor is to inspire students to create, evolve and grow through use of science and technology. By doing so, mentors strive to help students become more than they already are. Mentors teach and guide students in communication, teamwork, and marketing, as well as designing, building, and operating a robot. They also impart life skills that will serve the students not only today and within the confines of FIRST Robotics, but throughout their entire life and professional career.

One mentor goal is to actively share wisdom and knowledge with the students to foster intellectual growth. A mentor exists to coach, teach, and observe students while remaining ready to step in as needed. He or She is expected to facilitate instruction and allow students to do the majority of the work. It is the job of the mentor to nurture the students and create an environment to facilitate the greatest student achievement. A mentor facilitates opportunities for fund raising and community outreach, promoting and spreading the message of FIRST in both team activities and outside engagements.

It is also important for the mentor to provide an atmosphere of open communication and trust where the students are empowered to think creatively, independently, and voice their opinions. A mentor is expected to show trust and respect to every student, while fostering the same trust and respect in themselves. They are expected to be positive role models for students and provide that model through example, as well as strive to maintain a positive attitude and optimistic outlook at all times. As a result, a mentor will have a profoundly positive impact on the students, the schools, and the community.

[ebarker]

Mentors help guide inexperienced people, they "show the the ropes" of life.

They help people learn new things. They encourage, cajole, help build confidence, teach, etc.

Literally one does not need to be 'technical' to be a mentor.

Think about it for a second, you need a mentor to help you get past this problem.

I once heard someone say that the mentee picks the mentor.

"Mr. Jones, would you be my (our) mentor. You can help us when we have question,......etc)

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by Oxford's English Dictionary

An experienced and trusted adviser

It's one of those "intentionally left vague." Some people put in 200+ hours a season, some people might be there for 20, but some people can have a lot of impact in a smaller time.

I think you might start with asking the question, "Do you want to make a difference?" Have people come and see where they might fall in. Some people will naturally gravitate towards bigger commitments, others towards smaller ones, and some people will stop showing up. You can't really consider being a mentor a job... it takes way too much passion for that.

[Jon Stratis]

Keep in mind that, as the team grows and ages, the "job description" may change. A brief history of our 5 year old team:

- The first year, the mentors pretty much designed the robot, and were very hands-on. The students worked right alongside us, but we essentially led most aspects of the team. The team was half seniors and half juniors.
- The second year started out much like the first year did... until the students told us we were doing too much. So, we took a step back, worked with them to figure out how much they wanted us to do. We still did a lot of the design, but the students got a little experience prototyping and participated in more of the build. The team was almost entirely seniors (with half of them being new members, too!)
- The third year was really a radical change. The students spent a lot of time prototyping and understanding the design aspects before we started building (Personally, i think it was too much time prototyping). Despite that, some significant parts of the design still came from the mentors. We had 4 returning members, and 20ish new members.
- The fourth year the students really started running the team. This was really the first time we had students on the team who had been around a few years and really knew what the team, as a whole, needed. Again, the students did a lot of prototyping, made all the critical design decisions, and really learned their subsystem of the robot very well. a much smaller set of new members this year!
- The fifth year was definitely our best yet. Every subsystem was "owned" by a different student, and we had an identified design leader for the team, who helped drive the final design and the build season as a whole. The programming subteam, in particular, was so well led by a senior that she practically was a mentor.

In each of these years, the roles and responsibilities of the mentors has been slightly different. We work every year with the student leadership to find the right balance and to let the students shine. I think most of it comes down to experience. When you have students with several years worth of experience, they can do a lot more, and provide a lot more of the leadership the team needs. When you don't, that leadership tends to come more from the mentors. They key is recognizing when to step back and when to help out, which is something that can really only be learned from experience.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

A mentor shows up. Again and again. Helps with understanding, guides, demonstrates, lends a hand (literally), smiles, lets mistakes be made when they can teach something, shows the hot end of a soldering iron, learns something new everyday and helps students grow.

And then comes back next year and does it all over again.

Hey, I've been to Calgary, it is not that isolated. It's a lot like Chicago but the people talk funny, eh!

[RoboMom]

http://www.firstnemo.org/PDF/A_Mentor_Is.pdf