Reflections 2021

Mentor Reflections per Topic as Reported by the Mentors of Harmonie

What was your experience of Welcoming?

Welcoming was a lot of fun and i really got to know my mentees. They opened up to me and i fee like they would come to me if they need me. This period was very busy and sometimes this could be very overwhelming for me and my mentees but overall welcoming was a positive experience.

The day before Welcoming I started getting really nervous because I was scared that I wasn't going to succeed in being a good enough mentor for my mentees. My nervousness quickly subsided after I met my mentees in person and realized if I gave them a welcoming environment and made them feel comfortable I am already doing a lot. So during my first session my mentees were a bit shy since none of them knew each other or me. Doing ice breakers with them definitely broke the ice because they started opening up and started to feel more comfortable. My experience of welcoming was also not what I expected. I didn't think that my mentee group will open up and that they were willing to talk about things out of their comfort zone. But every single one of them surprised me and I had great welcoming where they engaged in all of the topics and they also took part in the conversation even though they were tired. I would definitely say that I had a great welcoming experience.By the end of welcoming my mentees got really tired. Even though my mentees were still engaging and taking part in the mentor sessions all the activities and things they did made them really tired and they told me they struggled with all the things that they needed to do. I feel like welcoming is a lot of fun but it does take a toll on some of the newcomers and they struggle to cope. With all of that and the topics we needed to discuss I also got really tired and some of the mentor sessions was a bit difficult to do when everyone was that tired. Other than that my experience of welcoming was fun.

I found welcoming to be an amazing time. Each day brought new challenges and different joys. It was an extremely busy week for the first years and for us as mentors too. The mentees were nervous and awkward in the first session as it was their first day here and everything was new and overwhelming for them. However after the second session or so everyone seemed much more relaxed and comfortable around each other. Given I had three mentees for the period of welcoming we became very close with each other and formed bonds very quickly. They confided in me more and more each day and each session bonded us as a group closer. Inside jokes were formed and everyone relaxed as the week progressed. One or two sessions did not go as well as I had hoped however the sessions after these were much better and made up for them. Overall Welcoming was a success for me as a mentor as I feel as if I am a person to whom they will come to when they want to chat or confide in me.

Welcoming was not at all what I expected. It was a whirlwind from start to finish however I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was far busier than I anticipated and I found the politics surrounding being in leadership quite tedious and difficult. However I found myself getting along with my fellow mentors far better than I could ever have anticipated.Welcoming also taught me a lot about communication. A team simply can't function if communication isn't present. There were a few communitication breakdowns in the early days of welcoming but we learned and adjusted quickly. Once communication was fixed things improved drastically. My overall experience of welcoming was exactly that. It was truly a time of welcoming. I felt welcomed as a mentor and I know my mentees felt welcomed in turn. It felt like a time in which we could all bond get to know one another make new friends and connections and learn about being a leader. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience even though covid regulations tended to add layers of stress and difficulty to what would ordinarily be a straight forward task. Most importantly it felt like no task was too great for me to undertake when I had my team around me.

In all honesty Welcoming was not what I expected it to be. Yes it was much busier than I anticipated; however it was much more exciting and thrilling than I expected.I really enjoyed challenging myself and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. Even though this is not always easy it allows one to grow and personal growth is something I love!I also truly appreciated working with a group of such diverse mentors yet experiencing that you can still have unity as a group even though everyone is not exactly the same.I learnt A LOT about the importance of communication. A team simply cannot function optimally without proper communication. I also appreciated having a 'permission to speak freely' zone where we could unwind and reflect on the day's events.I also enjoyed experiencing welcoming again since lockdown started very shortly after welcoming ended in my first year. It was wonderful to just experience the exciting atmosphere of living in residence again.All in all Welcoming was a truly positive and enriching experience! It was an honour to be part of this Welcoming Week.

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 tried to be as honest and real as i could and i felt that this allowed them to feel comfortable to open up to me. I also have some experience with university life and could answer questions that they had.

I would definitely say that the most helpful aspects of being a mentor to your mentees would be being there. What I mean with this is that being there for your mentees when they have questions need help with something or just needs someone to talk to helps them grow in their new environment. All of them come from different backgrounds and gets introduced to a whole new life when they move to university. Making sure they know that I am there for them whenever they need anything need help or just want to talk makes them feel that they have someone that will always be by their side.I think being there for them adds value to their university experience since they won't necessarily know what to do in some situations. It also adds value to their experience because no matter what there will always be someone that they can rely on.

I added the most value to them by giving them an hour a day during Welcoming to unwind and confide to me their annoyances and their other emotions. They reported back to me feedback about the sessions and every other event during the week which was highly insightful and made them feel much more relaxed. By creating this safe space for them they felt comfortable to tell me a lot about how they were doing and we were thus able to have deep conversations and bond much easier. They also had many queries about university life in general and I helped them to a great extent with this. They went into the beginning of classes with a deeper understanding of the way the classes work and their expectations were discussed in detail.

I think to be honest and rather boring the most helpful part of being a mentor to my mentees was the admin help. The help with WiFi with food bookings sorting out COB getting student cards helping with registration even helping one mentee with acceptance and accompanying them on many trips to admin A. While these aspects of the job might not be the most valuable they are the most helpful in terms of allowing the mentee to have the smoothest and easiest transition into university.The other value I think I added to their experience was a place for them to have discussions in a safe environment. My mentees really enjoyed being able to discuss difficult topics explore each other's worldviews and get to know each other on a deeper level. I think this is an invaluable part of the university experience - being able to have these sorts of conversations - it's important to be able to be open to new and different ideas when entering an institution like Stellenbosch Universityso I think this was also a very helpful part of my being a mentor to me mentees.

I think it initially shocked me a bit when I realised that I was receiving other small and extra responsibilities that I did not expect. However once I accepted this and decided that I would embrace these responsibilities and take care of them best I can I realised that there is something so beautiful about doing nitty-gritty tasks for others. It might seem insignificant to you yet for them it could mean the world or make their day. So I think that would be one of the main differences I think I made.I also think just having a safe space where you can unwind and debrief is very relaxing and calming and from the feedback I received from them I believe that was what my mentees experienced.Another thing is just being able to have a mentor to show you how to do nitty-gritty/admin tasks helps a lot. I think it takes a lot of unnecessary stress away that is caused by these types of problems.Lastly I also think that the conversations we had as a mentor group made them think further and wider - I think it opened up their minds which is very important in a university environment.