The Roles of a Mentor - A contest

[dtengineering]

I relate to Alan's role as "lead breaker of stuff at inconvenient times" and the "Health Regulator" role. My job in that capacity is to remind the juniors that just because the some of the seniors suck back double espressos in the morning that it doesn't necessarily make it a good idea. Not that they listen... it just makes it that much more funny when they are sitting in the stands going "Ohhhhh... I don't feel so good..." Here's a couple more:

Tour Guide: When attending the GTR we always try to find time to head down to Niagara Falls. One time, after dropping the kids off at the American Falls, they spent about two minutes going "Coool... that's a big waterfall." and then headed up into the tacky tourist trap of a town that is Niagara Falls. When we picked them up later in the day we asked what they had seen. Well, they found the arcade, McDonalds, etc. "But did you see the BIG falls?" we asked... "Yeah, when you dropped us off." was the reply.

So we had to drive them down to the Canadian Falls, and THEN they understood why Niagara Falls is worth the trip.

Legal Advisor: Always, always, always mention that students should not plan on crossing the border if they have a criminal conviction. I was extremely suprised one year when I mentioned it and a student quietly came up to ask me if I was serious about that, because he had done something really stupid the previous year (and been caught). This required a fair bit of research to determine if a non-violent young offender in Canada would be turned back at the border. Turns out that "probably not" is the answer... but if they are, their criminal record can be retained in the American Customs and Border Protection database even after it is removed from the Canadian database. This could cause a lifetime of problems crossing the border.

Censor: "SuperBAD?!?! I thought you said SuperMAN." Couldn't figure out why they wanted to watch Superman on the drive to Portland.... but apparently there is a difference in the two movies. (Don't get on my case, Superbad fans... a reasonable compromise was reached and everyone came away happy.)

Music Historian: Apparently when cranking ZZ Top on a Friday morning drive to the tournament, I was playing "cool, old stuff". Turns out that all of the music I like fits into the "old stuff" category, but some of it might not be in the "cool" category.


Jason