Sure, freshmen may feel as if they are in an apprentice role when meeting with upperclassmen. But the best mentor relationships, and those that continue between freshmen and upperclassmen, are when they are not in this apprenticeship role forever. It's when the freshmen and upperclassmen are able to connect on other levels rather than just receiving and giving advice. If a mentoring relationship is going to continue beyond the first meeting, the first few questions, the first few emails, there has to be some kind of other relationship developed in which the two players are "equals". These continuing relationships are the type of mentoring relationships we desire, the types that we get the most out of, and the types that not all freshmen get to experience.
Let's first talk about what all freshmen at U of I DO get to experience. All freshmen have the opportunity to have a mentor, whether it be through their LAS/Eng/Bus 100 Tas, the buddy they are assigned for the freshmen orientation events, their resident advisor(all first semester freshmen are required to live in dorms if they live on campus),etc. The point is, U of I has formed an orientation system that pretty much makes it impossible for you to get by your first week of school without running into an upperclassman that is in a leadership role. Each of the upperclassmen mentioned above are qualified and have obviously learned their way around campus and know how to navigate each of their roles. Each has taken their role because they wanted to teach or help freshmen integrate into the college atmosphere. These type of people fit into our mental model of what a "mentor" is. The TAs, buddies, and advisors will all tell the freshmen to ask them any questions. In the first meeting with these leaders, the freshman will feel like an apprentice and ask any questions that he or she has. The questions will get answered, but from here on out, there may be no further personal communication among the two parties. Or, there may be a few more meetings, but it will always be in a apprentice environment, where the conversation is mostly business with a question-answer flow. The two parties do not communicate outside of the meetings they set up for the older student to help and answer some questions for the younger student. In this type of relationship, there is EXPLICIT mentoring, and most (if not all) students at U of I will receive this type of mentoring. Its efficiency is very dependent upon the mentee's ability to be pro-active in asking questions and setting up meetings.
In the above example, there is no relationship outside of the mentor-mentee one developed, so the mentor has little to no incentive of being the pro active one and setting up hang out sessions or meetings with the mentee. In special cases, the mentor and mentee become more than just that; they develop a sort of mutual relationship, where the mentoring is just intrinsic. The mentoring is something that comes with the relationship, but it is not the reason for the relationship. The hang-out sessions are less forced. It's difficult for these relationships to be formed, because often neither the mentor nor the mentee will make the extra effort to break the sessions out of just advising discussion. The extra effort would take the relationship to a different level, one that is outside of the typical mental model we hold for mentor relationships. Not all students get to experience this type of mentoring because not all students are lucky enough to find an upperclassman that they connect with in different ways. Many students that experience this often find these relationships come from a group outside of what U of I provided them with already(although these type of relationships are also possible with the TA, RA but I think most people find it outside of this). Perhaps this is an RSO, a sports team---some type of group where interests were connected and the same type of people coexist.
As I've mentioned before, in my business fraternity, freshmen pledges have this wonderful opportunity to interact and get advice from fellow business majors who have been through it all before. We've been through the resume creating, job hunt, integrating with school, roommate issues, etc. With the ~100 people in the fraternity, even if a freshman has a very specialized issue, they are likely to be able to connect with someone who has an answer. Because everyone knows each other so well, the pledges can easily ask some of the closest members who would have experience about ____(fill in ANYTHING). Approximately 20 pledges are selected each semester based on their personalities and fit with the fraternity after three stages of interviews. During the pledge semester, each pledge must "interview" (hang out one on one) with 34 different active members. These sessions will last anywhere from one hour to a weekend outing to Chicago (although these are difficult to do since there's only so much time in a semester!) Spending one on one time with 34 members in addition to the time at events really helps to push the development of the relationship. The pledge freshmen have an entire fraternity's knowledge at their disposal---as well as over 100 mentors. Pledges are probably on the 2nd type of mentor relationship that I described with at least 10 of the actives. These people are the ones they connected with the most, the ones that affected them the most, the ones that have pushed beyond just a mentor relationship with questions and answers---but into the type of mentor relationship that will last forever.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Do I change my ways?
Do I change my ways? That is how I know I have learned from an experience.
Could I teach it to someone else? That is how I know I have learned from a course.
Can this evidence of learning be communicated to others? ...
I, similar to probably 99% of CHP students, have always cared a lot about my grades. The transition of high school to college is the semester that sometimes throws people off with their classes. For me, it was my first semester sophomore year. This semester, it wasn't that I didn't try. It wasn't that I didn't care. But I didn't try as hard as I should have, I didn't care as much as I should have, and my grades did not turn out the way I liked them to be.
Do I change my ways?
My first semester sophomore year, I was very scattered. Like many business students during the on campus recruiting season (September-October), I was busy interviewing and balancing that with school work and extracurriculars. Having all of this going on as well as having some of the difficult core business classes this semester really overwhelmed me. In some ways, my first semester sophomore year was comparable to many students' first semester freshman year. It was the semester that I realized the "shock" of college and the difficulty of classes merging together. Looking back on it, none of my classes were that difficult. I should have done better in each of those classes, but for whatever reason, I let distractions get the best of me and I ended up with the worst GPA I have ever received. I feel like I lost a lot of things that semester. In my mind, I had lost my GPA, my desire, heart, passion---I was so disappointed. What had caused me to fail? Simply said, I took on too much. I was on the exec board of two organizations---Vice President of Fundraising for my business fraternity, tutoring coordinator of my honor society, an active leader in Business Council, as well as a general member in various other organizations. I cared a lot about each of these, and I put them above my grades. If I did poorly in a class, it only affected me. If I did poorly at fundraising, it affected thousands of other people(both the people I was selling to and the people in the fraternity). A very small amount of my time was allocated to academics between the job search and the work I was doing for my organizations. The time that I did spend studying, I was often thinking about what I should do next rather than focusing on the job at hand. My mind was thinking about something else.
Looking back on it, the only thing I lost this semester was my high GPA. I did not lose my heart; I did not lose my passion. These were still core fundamental values that did not change. My "poor" grades this semester were not reflective of my lost in passion or heart---I had just prioritized my time differently. I wouldn't do any of it differently either. Most importantly, I gained experience. I learned how much I could handle, I learned how to manage my time, and I learned to look to the future.
"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted"- reads a famous quote. I am unsure where this originated but I am going to credit Randy Pausch as that is where I heard it. This is what I told myself; I just had to bounce back.
I can never get back the course topics that I did not learn as well as I should have. I can never get back those foregone A's. But I CAN look to the future and prove that I have learned from this experience.
My first semester sophomore year, I received my lowest GPA in college. My second semester sophomore year, I received my highest GPA in college. The turnaround is evidence that I learned from my experience. The classes I took second semester were in a progression of classes known as more difficult than the first semester. I managed to do better in--- what students rate as--- the two hardest accounting classes than I did in the two easiest accounting classes. Did I quit all the extracurriculars I was involved in? No. But I did, change my ways. I changed my studying habits. I changed my mindset going into studying. First semester, if I had a problem getting enough tutors for my tutoring program, I would continue to think about it as I was studying for a test. Second semester, I learned to work out any issues I had before going into a study session so that I would be fully devoted to that task. I tried to prepare more ahead of time. First semester, I was happy that I had scored an internship and let myself go a little bit. Second semester, I knew I had more potential to work for.
Peter Senge encourages "systems thinking". During the first semester, I was attributing my grades to the lack of time. But I wasn't considering other areas. I wasn't considering my lack of time MANAGEMENT, and most of all, my inability to acknowledge when too much was too much and I needed to take a step back. We can't attribute an effect to a single cause, because all the operations in a system are intertwined. By taking a look at the big picture, I learned from my experience. Nonetheless, I am sure that there is more to learn in the realm of time management. Just like the time lags experienced in the "beer game", life is a string of experiences that we continue to learn from as time goes on.
In this case, I have evidence I learned because my grades improved, but this is only over one semester. If I have really learned from my experience, the good grades will continue. And I am doing what it takes for that to happen. My fundamental values were never changed or lost.
Could I teach it to someone else? That is how I know I have learned from a course.
Can this evidence of learning be communicated to others? ...
I, similar to probably 99% of CHP students, have always cared a lot about my grades. The transition of high school to college is the semester that sometimes throws people off with their classes. For me, it was my first semester sophomore year. This semester, it wasn't that I didn't try. It wasn't that I didn't care. But I didn't try as hard as I should have, I didn't care as much as I should have, and my grades did not turn out the way I liked them to be.
Do I change my ways?
My first semester sophomore year, I was very scattered. Like many business students during the on campus recruiting season (September-October), I was busy interviewing and balancing that with school work and extracurriculars. Having all of this going on as well as having some of the difficult core business classes this semester really overwhelmed me. In some ways, my first semester sophomore year was comparable to many students' first semester freshman year. It was the semester that I realized the "shock" of college and the difficulty of classes merging together. Looking back on it, none of my classes were that difficult. I should have done better in each of those classes, but for whatever reason, I let distractions get the best of me and I ended up with the worst GPA I have ever received. I feel like I lost a lot of things that semester. In my mind, I had lost my GPA, my desire, heart, passion---I was so disappointed. What had caused me to fail? Simply said, I took on too much. I was on the exec board of two organizations---Vice President of Fundraising for my business fraternity, tutoring coordinator of my honor society, an active leader in Business Council, as well as a general member in various other organizations. I cared a lot about each of these, and I put them above my grades. If I did poorly in a class, it only affected me. If I did poorly at fundraising, it affected thousands of other people(both the people I was selling to and the people in the fraternity). A very small amount of my time was allocated to academics between the job search and the work I was doing for my organizations. The time that I did spend studying, I was often thinking about what I should do next rather than focusing on the job at hand. My mind was thinking about something else.
Looking back on it, the only thing I lost this semester was my high GPA. I did not lose my heart; I did not lose my passion. These were still core fundamental values that did not change. My "poor" grades this semester were not reflective of my lost in passion or heart---I had just prioritized my time differently. I wouldn't do any of it differently either. Most importantly, I gained experience. I learned how much I could handle, I learned how to manage my time, and I learned to look to the future.
"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted"- reads a famous quote. I am unsure where this originated but I am going to credit Randy Pausch as that is where I heard it. This is what I told myself; I just had to bounce back.
I can never get back the course topics that I did not learn as well as I should have. I can never get back those foregone A's. But I CAN look to the future and prove that I have learned from this experience.
My first semester sophomore year, I received my lowest GPA in college. My second semester sophomore year, I received my highest GPA in college. The turnaround is evidence that I learned from my experience. The classes I took second semester were in a progression of classes known as more difficult than the first semester. I managed to do better in--- what students rate as--- the two hardest accounting classes than I did in the two easiest accounting classes. Did I quit all the extracurriculars I was involved in? No. But I did, change my ways. I changed my studying habits. I changed my mindset going into studying. First semester, if I had a problem getting enough tutors for my tutoring program, I would continue to think about it as I was studying for a test. Second semester, I learned to work out any issues I had before going into a study session so that I would be fully devoted to that task. I tried to prepare more ahead of time. First semester, I was happy that I had scored an internship and let myself go a little bit. Second semester, I knew I had more potential to work for.
Peter Senge encourages "systems thinking". During the first semester, I was attributing my grades to the lack of time. But I wasn't considering other areas. I wasn't considering my lack of time MANAGEMENT, and most of all, my inability to acknowledge when too much was too much and I needed to take a step back. We can't attribute an effect to a single cause, because all the operations in a system are intertwined. By taking a look at the big picture, I learned from my experience. Nonetheless, I am sure that there is more to learn in the realm of time management. Just like the time lags experienced in the "beer game", life is a string of experiences that we continue to learn from as time goes on.
In this case, I have evidence I learned because my grades improved, but this is only over one semester. If I have really learned from my experience, the good grades will continue. And I am doing what it takes for that to happen. My fundamental values were never changed or lost.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Prioritizing Challenges
"We're in college... we should be able to do what we want!" But alas, we are subject to the restrictions of our majors, the curriculum, and the requirements for graduation. Many majors have so many requirements that students do not have an opportunity to take additional classes. Should some of these requirements be sacrificed so that students can become more well rounded? No, I do not think so. When students graduate from the U of I in their major, graduate schools or companies believe in their ability to succeed at their institution because of the reputation and curriculum that they know to be true about this university. They know the coursework that is required for a certain major to be attained, and by looking at the particular student's GPA the institution has determined that this student is high achieving, and thus would be a success. So, from a professional future standpoint, the coursework would be a less objective measure if some students could opt out (here, we may also consider whether students would even opt out if allowed, knowing that someone is going to be reviewing the students' judgement if they choose to take "wine tasting" instead of their "biology" major course).
First of all, I think we need to prioritize any type of change we are trying to make. The first problem we must solve is the decline of degrees. I believe this is a bigger problem, because the ultimate goal of education is to raise the efficiency of people in the work force. That is, the rate and quality at which employees are able to accomplish the jobs. Once we do this, we can continue to raise the efficiency and quality by concentrating on other areas (such as elective curriculum).
Declining for Degrees discusses the progression of students who are starting to "glide" through the system rather than using higher education as a way to pursue learning effectively (getting the right things done, according to Drucker). If students are allowed to take some electives instead of their current required classes during their senior year, isn't this just feeding into the decline? I feel like, now, is as necessary of a time as any, to impose stricter rules on the major guidelines. Education is taken for granted, assumed as a right. If we can impose stricter rules in terms of degree requirements, then it is possible students will focus more on their learning than just gliding through.
The argument against such a strict major curriculum is whether students are getting a well-rounded education if they do not have room for courses outside their major. From what I know, and perhaps it is different in Engineering, but students should be able to finish their curriculum (including required gen eds) by taking 15 hours a semester. The students who are looking to be more well rounded and have further interests will have the desire to take the 18 hour semester their senior year. If they feel that it is too much, they could take it as credit/no credit. In addition, students could even just sit in the lectures for their electives without even taking the class. This would take away the pressure of tests and homework for those added hours. Professors are pretty good about letting this happen.
There are also many other ways to build a well rounded student outside of coursework. People volunteer in areas of interest. As a business student, if I were interested in medical relief, I could go volunteer at the children's hospital or join an RSO. This is another reason why it is so important for students to know the resources that they have. I know that there is an RSO called Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children (FIMRC), but not that many students on campus may. I also know where to go for resources if I was looking for more information in medical relief. I would ask one of my friends that were Pre-Med majors. I think the project group that is working on publicizing resources to freshmen will help. Freshmen can then build a network and join the groups that are of interest to them---making them more well rounded without having to change or sacrifice any curriculum.
To conclude, I feel that there is no excuse for students to sacrifice their major classes in order to take electives that they are interested in just to be more "well rounded". This is just going to feed into the system of "gliding" There are many other ways to do this, and the costs of allowing electives over requirements would outweigh the benefits.
First of all, I think we need to prioritize any type of change we are trying to make. The first problem we must solve is the decline of degrees. I believe this is a bigger problem, because the ultimate goal of education is to raise the efficiency of people in the work force. That is, the rate and quality at which employees are able to accomplish the jobs. Once we do this, we can continue to raise the efficiency and quality by concentrating on other areas (such as elective curriculum).
Declining for Degrees discusses the progression of students who are starting to "glide" through the system rather than using higher education as a way to pursue learning effectively (getting the right things done, according to Drucker). If students are allowed to take some electives instead of their current required classes during their senior year, isn't this just feeding into the decline? I feel like, now, is as necessary of a time as any, to impose stricter rules on the major guidelines. Education is taken for granted, assumed as a right. If we can impose stricter rules in terms of degree requirements, then it is possible students will focus more on their learning than just gliding through.
The argument against such a strict major curriculum is whether students are getting a well-rounded education if they do not have room for courses outside their major. From what I know, and perhaps it is different in Engineering, but students should be able to finish their curriculum (including required gen eds) by taking 15 hours a semester. The students who are looking to be more well rounded and have further interests will have the desire to take the 18 hour semester their senior year. If they feel that it is too much, they could take it as credit/no credit. In addition, students could even just sit in the lectures for their electives without even taking the class. This would take away the pressure of tests and homework for those added hours. Professors are pretty good about letting this happen.
There are also many other ways to build a well rounded student outside of coursework. People volunteer in areas of interest. As a business student, if I were interested in medical relief, I could go volunteer at the children's hospital or join an RSO. This is another reason why it is so important for students to know the resources that they have. I know that there is an RSO called Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children (FIMRC), but not that many students on campus may. I also know where to go for resources if I was looking for more information in medical relief. I would ask one of my friends that were Pre-Med majors. I think the project group that is working on publicizing resources to freshmen will help. Freshmen can then build a network and join the groups that are of interest to them---making them more well rounded without having to change or sacrifice any curriculum.
To conclude, I feel that there is no excuse for students to sacrifice their major classes in order to take electives that they are interested in just to be more "well rounded". This is just going to feed into the system of "gliding" There are many other ways to do this, and the costs of allowing electives over requirements would outweigh the benefits.
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