Reflections 2021

Mentor Reflections per Topic as Reported by the Mentors of Aurora

What was your experience of Welcoming?

Welcoming was very chaotic and tiring at times and a bit anxiety driven with covid looming over our heads. However it was a very enjoyable experience and I learnt a lot about my self and my abilities as a person. I feel like after being home for months being around people again really filled me with a lot of joy and excitement and it was something I really needed to do for myself. I also got to meet some really nice people that I have become friends with that I think could be long term friendships. My mentees were very enthusiastic about the law which really sparked my enthusiasm for it again and has motivated me to want to really work on myself. I enjoyed talking with the mentees and being there to help with their transition even if not all of them showed up everyday or if I never saw them again after day 1. It was really useful to have the Be well sessions already pretty planned for you so that you had something to talk to the mentees about during the mentor sessions and the be well sessions were well suited to how the mentees were feeling/ would be feeling in week 1 so that it would give them some useful skills to help in dealing with week 1 once they got there. So they could essentially mentally prepare which was pretty cool. Taking them around the campus really made me feel like a 1st year again and it put me in their shoes to feel how they must feeling and seeing the campus through fresh eyes. I have a lot of love for this campus and what it can provide and I hope that I can continue to help and support my mentees for the rest of the year.

In your opinion, what was the most helpful aspect of being a mentor to your mentees - how did you add value to their university experience?

I think the be well experience was really useful and we could add our own experiences and helpful tips and trick pertaining to the same degrees. I think it was really nice for them to have someone there every day to go to if they didnt have anything else to do and could rely on us to talk to and have a friend to help them transition and learn about the campus and life at the university.