Student Members vs. Adult Members

[Patrick Wang]

As a student team leader, there are several things that cross my mind whenever this sort of student/mentor issue surfaces.

As a student, I have only four years on the team, assuming I start as a freshmen.

As a student team leader, one of the things that I have made one of my highest priorities is to set a positive precidence for the team. Leave a legacy, set the team up to be self-sustaining.

What I have found out is that especially in a student run organization, there are certain things that a high-school student simply can't know, have never gone through, that's where the adult has to step in and be the adult.

What I have also observed, is that when the students, especially the older members and the leadership set themselves as a positive role-model, the new members really do take it to heart. When they live in a healthy enviroment for learning, they want nothing more than to keep it that way. As such, when those new members become the student leadership, they bring along the experiences that they have had and hope to model themselves after it.

The converse is also true, when there is or was a Big Man on the Team, often times students will try to model that behavior as well. That is something which needs to be guarded against at all cost.

just my 2cents
I would appreciate any other perspectives offered by both student and adult team leaders.