Students Graduating to Mentors

[Jeff Waegelin]

Over the past 5 years, I've seen this from all sides, as a high school student who became a mentor, a college student who watched students move into mentoring roles, and an engineer on a team with a well-established program of students moving from HS to college to engineering. The first year is always the hardest, as it is somewhat of a transition year, both in FIRST and in life outside of FIRST. Some students handle it better than others - they can very easily become a problem/distraction, or a key leader of your team, depending on how they handle that transition. The three biggest problems are:

1) Managing your time - For someone new to college, suddenly having all kinds of options open to you can be an issue. You don't *have* to go to class, or do your homework anymore. It's very easy for someone who feels dedicated to FIRST and to the team to blow off their other responsibilities, especially during the "crunch time" of build season. I've been there, and done that. My second semester of freshman year didn't go as well as I would have liked, but I accepted it as a learning experience, and my winter term grades were actually better than my fall grades the next three years. I learned that I didn't have the time to goof off during FIRST season, and I focused and got things done.

2) Finding your role - Mentoring a FIRST team is not about extending your high school experience. Finding a suitable role becomes one of the great challenges of moving from high school student to mentor. I ended up having to change teams to make this work, because I never quite fit in on my old team - my place in the organization was filled by new people. This is made much easier if the team already has an established structure of college students and young mentors, but it's possible to work out a new niche in any organization if you work at it.

3) Maintaining proper mentor-student relationships - This is likely the hardest one for high schoolers returning to their own teams as mentors. When a mentor is so close in age to his or her students, it can sometimes be hard to maintain the necessary separation needed for the team to operate smoothly. The challenge is for them to understand they're not one of the students anymore, and that is a hard step to take.

So, in conclusion, every team I've been a part of has had a history of students continuing on as mentors. There are pitfalls, as I've described, but it can be very helpful to have an individual (or group) capable of providing leadership and connecting and relating to the current students.