Transitioning From Student to Mentor

[LeelandS]

Hey there! I have just finished my first season as a college mentor (I graduated in 2011, but I took a year off before finding a team to mentor. First note, I am NOT mentoring the team I was on in high school).

What were some of the largest adjustments you had to make while undergoing this transition?
There are a few things. One is the team culture conflicting with what I was raised in. I came from a public school and a public school team, and I ended up mentoring a Christian school. It's definitely a different culture that I have to get used to. Secondly, it's learning to step back. On my old team, we were taught a lot about students doing most of the work and running the team. Those lessons are stuck in my DNA, and whenever a job needs to get done, I need to step back and make sure a student is the one of takes point on it, and I'm mostly there to support.

What lessons did you learn from your first year of mentoring?
Oh goodness... I learned a lot. Part of it is dealing with students from a completely different perspective. If you have an issue with a student on the team, ignoring and avoiding them doesn't fly anymore. It has been a very maturing experience about team dynamics from a different point of view.

Have you tried mentoring through digital media (ex: Skype video chat, emails, etc.), and if so, how? How successful is this method?
Our team routinely uses email to keep in touch with each other. This season, we have also started experimenting with TeamViewer (think Skype, but instead of seeing faces, you see a person's computer screen). Early in the season we used this to work on brainstorming ideas when we weren't actually meeting. So far I have no issues with it!

What is it like suddenly belonging to a new team? Did you carry over many of the things you learned from your high school/previous team?
It's been crazy. The transition between teams is pretty difficult and at the beginning, I found it hard to call myself a member of the new team because I was still so close with my old team. My old team is consistently one of the stronger teams in the region, and my new team knows this, so they frequently ask me how a problem was handled on my old team.

Who or what was your inspiration to mentor after high school?
FIRST changed my life. I owe it so much, it doesn't seem right to me to just stop participating once I graduate. I had so much fun, learned so much, and made so many amazing friends as a student. It just made sense to continue as a mentor. I love watching over the kids and watching them compete just as I had years prior. It's an extremely satisfying experience!