During the fall of 2016, I took an Honors course titled “Discovering Your Mentorship Philosophy” (HONR 401) where we covered multiple readings by famous Western philosophical figures and educators such as Plato and John Dewey. Using these readings, we constructed a personal definition of “knowledge” which we used to discuss mentorship and create our own philosophy. As part of the class, we were assigned lower classmen within the Honors Program to act as our mentees. It became our responsibility to meet with them regularly and provide them the support they needed as new members of the Honors Program.  

 

This experience allowed me to fulfill Levels 1 & 2 of the Values section in the Leadership competency, because it helped me identify my personal leadership values regarding mentorship. Although I analyzed multiple mentors in this class, both through classroom readings and personal experiences, I realized that just like with any other leadership component, I had my own view and approach towards mentorship. This, along with my experience mentoring a lower classmen Honors student, allowed me to write my own mentorship reflection. In this essay, I state that a mentor must possess the following characteristics to be successful in his or her role: he or she 1) must be knowledgeable, 2) have self-awareness, 3) be conscious of others, 4) build rapport with their mentee, 5) foster growth in their mentee, and 6) have willingness to learn. Writing this down allowed me to articulate my thoughts and ideas to share with others, but it also allowed me to reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses when acting as a mentor. I realized that, although I have numerous expectations of mentors based on this philosophy, I don’t always meet these demands myself. For example, as willing as I am to learn from others, I often struggle with admitting that I don’t always have the answer to someone’s question. Although this is something I’m not proud of, identifying my weaknesses along with my strengths pushed me to see areas of growth in myself.

 

As I continue acting as a mentor, I intend to keep developing my mentorship philosophy and continue working on myself to become the best role model I can be.