Mentor Respect

[tiffany34990]

i don't think i can every thank our mentor on my team enough--they do sooo much for us-- get us food, place to stay--teach us everything they know--and always want to help us in any way--- they are really cool people--- dillard, warren, james, gary jones, mr. higgin, mrs. carey-- well the list goes on and on-- we have many adults-- and well they are gonna be givign us soem of the responsiliblity next year--so the team won't be run on only students or mentors--- pretty evened out--well it's suppose to sort of work that way-- all well-- but to all the mentors out there you guys are soooo awesome and keep up the good work-- don't leave FIRST!!!

[Steve W]

Why do I mentor? Not because of thanks I get. Not because of the awards I get. Not for finacial gain. Why then you ask? I was a leader in a boys group for many years. I continued plugging along and sometimes asked myself the same questions without any answers. About 10 years after I passed my responsibilities along to a younger, more energetic, in touch guy, I found out. It semed as on queue different kids that had gone through our program came up to me and told me how much I influenced their lives. I was deeply touched. They didn't have to and I wasn't looking for it. Sometimes the seeds that we sow take time to grow. By the time some of the seeds start to sprout we are not around. That does mean that they haven't been nourished and fed.

I find that now I mentor because I know that somewhere, sometime that the time I spend will help one to ? kids change their outlook on life and that the time spent will multiply to the rest of society as these kids grow. Do I need a thanks now? No but yes it is nice. Do I expect that what I do will be noticed? No but when it is I know that the kids are growing. If I have a problem with serving then all I need to do is look back on what others did for me. To sum it all up I will resort to a movie title that says it all - Pay It Forward

[preussrobotics]

Originally Posted by Eric Bareiss

To clarify:

I am not underappreciated. Mentors in general are. I've never had a problem with my kids, they are great!

I am in the unique position in that I was Eric's mentor several years ago on Team 64. Sometimes appreciation comes immediately, sometimes never, and sometimes (as in Eric's case) years later when he had his own team. I don't think any of us (mentors) do it because we want the appreciation--though, to be sure, it's always great to hear. We do it because we believe that our kids will be better for it. We do it because our kids will become better world citizens because of it.

[oreocookeee]

last year ian and i were on the same team, and now i am one of the students that he mentioned were taking large amounts of responsibility. for our team, at least, ian and i can both guarantee that students do just as much, if not more (and it certainly is more), than the administrators. this, however, does not mean that we dont appreciate our mentors for their valuable contributions. i think its important to recognize the contributions that any person makes to the team, whether its a student, mentor, or anything else. our mentor understands the commitment that we all make, and we are all proud that we are given the responsibilities that are not normally given to students. i dont agree with everyone's description of "behind the scenes" activities that mentors deal with and that are never experience by students. student should at least be given a understanding of what is involved, if not the ability to participate in such activities. i dont mean any disrespect to mentors, but i think its just as important to recognize the contributions that students make to the team, whether that involves turning screws, or writing permission slips.

[Koko Ed]

You got to realize that teenagers more often than not are in their own world and are not going to fall over themselves in adulation of every adult who impacts thier lives (and there's alot from the parents, to the teachers to their advisors. This has been debated in our society for years). You got to remember were dealig with people in transistion from children to adults. It's a confusing frustratating and overwhelming time of their lives filled with alot of temptations and pressures from all sides. They're not prone to good decisions and they don't always appreciate everything that has been done to them. Chalk that up to immaturity. That's one great thing about FIRST is it actually teaches them alot of skills that go beyond technical skills. We actually have our kids have to communicate to other team members and speak before the team to reprot what their sub team had done that night. Our class valecdetorian (sp) from last year was part of my first animation team. She was a very smart and talented girl but she was also terribly shy. Over the years of being on the team she has grown alot as a person and I do think that being on FIRST has done alot for her. And thats our jobs as mentors to light the way for our kids. Our thanks does not have to come from their lips. It comes from the finished product that walks across the stage, gets their diploma and moves on to bigger and better things.

[RoboMom]

Welcome to our launch of NEMO!

FIRST NEMO (Non-Engineering Mentor Organization) was created by Jenny Beatty (Team 007), Kathie Kentfield (Team 173) and Cheryl Miller (Team 294) in May 2004 to provide a support forum for FIRST Adult Mentors on diverse non-technical subjects such as team organization, fundraising, parent involvement, and community relations.

NEMO will be open to adult mentors, including engineers, teachers and college students (who may be the only mentors on their teams) . But it is mainly a support group and information exchange for those non-engineering mentors who help with all the behind the scene glue that holds the teams together. Travel (hotels, endless meals), parent involvement, fundraising, business plans, dealing with the FIRST logistics. All the "unfun" stuff, as one of the students labeled it. We hope to seek out all the NEMO's who don't realize they are part of a large community. We announced NEMO at the team forums and continue to spread the word in the preseason.

We want a forum that will allow discussion to go on all year.

We want to start keeping statistics on NEMO's and how many there are and their skills and background. We want to make it easier for rookies, so they don't have to reinvent stuff that others already have learned, sometimes the hard way. We want to help FIRST get constructive comments from a group of NEMO's. We have met many NEMO's over the years. We have a lot to learn from each other.

Thanks to Chief Delphi for allowing us the meeting room. Spread the word.

For now, send Robomom a private message to sign up. This forum is private and will only be visible to members.

[KathieK]

Being a mentor is about coaching a group of teenagers (when preschoolers are your preferred age group ) for several months for a chairman's award presentation, waiting nervously in a hallway while they make their presentation and wishing you could be a fly on the wall, then having your heart drop through your stomach when your team name is NOT announced as having won the award... and then finding each and every one of them to give them a hug for the fantastic job they did because it's NOT about the winning, it's all about the process you go through together working towards the goal. It's not unlike being pregnant and giving birth to a child - as any parent will attest.

Being a mentor is about patience, frustrations, long days, and giving up your vacation to be a chaperone for a robotics team. Being a mentor is about watching an insecure 14 year old turn into a confident 17 year old, about watching a student who came to the team as someone who didn't have any friends suddenly discover there are other people like herself out there... And in the end I hope that when I die, someone from my team will be my age and reading the obituaries in the paper and say to his wife, "Wow, I remember Mrs. Kentfield, she was a mentor on my robotics team back in high school!" That's all I ask.

[Allison K]

I couldn't even comprehend the ammount of work that goes into running a team until I started one this year (They tried to tell me, but it didn't sink in), especially since I'm the only mentor on our team (of course I don't regret a minute of it). And it's really cool because I can go back home to 226, and technically I'm a mentor, but I'm still learning too. I can't put into words how much respect I have for the teachers and engineers on 226 (well, all teams really, but 226 I see firsthand) for working a full 40 hour week and then spending at least that much time working for the team.

Allison

[LauraN]

I think, as students, we have a (very very small) idea of the committment our mentors give us. I obviously don't know first-hand and don't claim to, but you slowly begin to realize just how much of a time committment a FIRST team really is. Our faculty advisor needs to be with us in the shop every day until 5:00. And the further we get from kick-off, the later that time becomes. I won't do the math, but that is a LOT of time. This same faculty member is a teacher of mine who just recently organized a class trip- he has been trying to get all the permission and logistics worked out with the district for weeks now, and just yesterday he was able to give out the permission slips.

Our mentors love what they do. The college kids who come back to our school on weekends just love FIRST and really like mentoring their underclassmen friends from previous years. The adults are even more amazing. Not that college students don't have lives , but the adult mentors are taking time away from jobs and family. It's amazing that they have the patience to sit there and explain to me the most basic things.

From a student point of view, I think mentors do far more than teach us. They give us such an amazing sense of self. Our students and mentors have friendly relationships, and it's great to know that these professional adults treat you as an equal. It's great to know that you can have inside jokes with them. (OK, even if they are geeky inside jokes about hammers and quality control. ) But even more importantly, it's great to know that the guy helping you wire your robot's RC or trace the pneumatic circuits is in many cases an expert in his field. Who is not only willing to devote time and energy to teaching you what he knows, but who respects and values you and your opinion. There's nothing better to boost your ego than to make some comment or suggestion that your mentor greets with, "Oh! Good idea." That kind of thing has happened to me several times and it feels great.

So yes I respect my mentors, but it's not in a very direct and forward, "Wow you must do a lot of work for us" kind of way. It's a much more subtle admiration that probably can't be expressed in words. (But we do try. )

[xxmaddjxx]

There is an interesting policy that we have on our team that might interest some of you guys.

From regionals and nats i noticed that there are a lot of teams where its mostly the montors working on the robot. I've seen pits where there were 4 45 yr old men aroudn the robot and the kids doing absolutely nothing.

Our mentors agreed when we were forming this team that they would not touch the robot unless we asked for their help. Our mentors are here for advice, cutting with power tools (were not allowed), and making sure we are safe.

There is one mentor we have who handles all the paperwork and i deeply respect her because i came to realize what paperwork really means. Deadlines, phone calls, travel arrangements, dealing with school staff, emails, faxes, and that is just some of it!

[Ian W.]

I'm sorry, but I have to entirely disagree with you, at least for my (former?) team.

This year, our mentor who usually did everything left us a week before kickoff, in debt, with nothing planned out except that we were going to three competitions.

While I personally did not do much of the work, one student, a senior, doing all of her stuff for college at the same time, basically ran the team. She did pretty much everything, fundraise, book hotels, flights, transporation, managed our books, pretty much everything save for a few things that I was able to help with, or that our other mentors were able to do.

Another friend designed our t-shirts, and even had to front the money for them because our mentor wouldn't. He also picked them up, right before our first competition.

I personally, along with the help of a friend, made up permission slips, and in one event, actually had to collect all of them, as a high school senior (a BIG no-no in my school) because our mentor was no where to be found, 3 hours after we were supposed to leave for one of our competitions.

So say what you want, you're lucky that your team has mentors that do all of the nitty gritty stuff for the students, and the students just worry about making money to make a robot. Many teams don't have mentors that care to do, or even know how to do, all of the "behind the scenes" stuff, and on those teams, high school students have to step up and do it, and I have a feeling that it's those teams' students who are complaining, and they have every right to. I shouldn't be worrying about if we have a bus picking us up at the airport in Atlanta, it should just be there "magically" through a mentor's work, not students' work.

That's only some of the problems my team had this past year, we had plenty more, but because of the amazing dedication of a few students, my team was able to get through this year. So don't bash the students, because on plenty of teams, they're doing just as much, if not more, work than the mentors.

[srjjs]

Originally Posted by Ian W.

So say what you want, you're lucky that your team has mentors that do all of the nitty gritty stuff for the students, and the students just worry about making money to make a robot. Many teams don't have mentors that care to do, or even know how to do, all of the "behind the scenes" stuff, and on those teams, high school students have to step up and do it, and I have a feeling that it's those teams' students who are complaining, and they have every right to. I shouldn't be worrying about if we have a bus picking us up at the airport in Atlanta, it should just be there "magically" through a mentor's work, not students' work.

As a member of one of those teams where students do virtually everything, even at the administrative level, I still have to disagree with Ian. I don't think it matters whether you feel you're putting more work into the robot than someone else is, or that you're working harder than they are. If someone else is taking time out of their own busy life to come help you and your team, they deserve your respect and appreciation, no matter what the size of that contribution may be.

Maybe the person who usually does all the administrative work left a week before kickoff. That may have been a breach of faith, it may not, I don't know the circumstances. However, it still stands that that person has been helping your team to take care of all this work has done it for several years. If it weren't for this person, you might have had to do all this every year. Being bitter when someone who has taken so much out of their own life to help you is very ungrateful, and makes me wonder whether underappreciation was one of the reasons this mentor left in the first place.

With that said, I think that your team has done well in being able to handle all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into running a team. I think that far from "bashing the students," most people would look up to a team like this as a wonderful example of dedication and committment on the part of the students. You just need to keep in mind that just because it may feel like you're doing more work than the mentors, whether that is true or not, they still deserve your respect and gratitude.