Mentor Roles

[lovelj]

Originally Posted by hauki

I am a new engineering mentor (started in Sept) and would like some advice.

If the build team is totally getting off track what should be the mentors role? I've tried to influence them to get back on track with little success. I've worked in the high tech industry for 30 years and have seen many projects fail. I feel at this point the team is not going to get a robot built. Should I just let them fail and call it a learning experience? Is it my role to build the robot for them? I don't think this is correct.

Is a mentor part of the team? I was told by an angry\stressed student that mentors are not part of the team. My view is that we are all on the same team but have different roles to support. I think I am there to help\encourage\voice concerns if the project is slipping?

First, thanks for taking the time to be a mentor. As an engineer, it's a responsibility to mentor and train young engineers. The most important letter in FIRST is the I for inspire. Failure is not inspirational. There should be no doubt that you are a part of the team. You are the most important part of the team. FIRSTs goal is for you to transfer knowledge to the students. Things no classroom can teach. Not sit back passively and be a babysitter. That would miss the whole point of FIRST. I would suggest an "after hours" discussion with the other mentors and teachers then have one unified vision of what mentorship means to the team. Stick with it.