Developing Confidence through Mentoring High Schoolers

A meaningful curricular learning experience for me was being a Dream Project Mentor by taking the UW Dream Project courses (EDUC 260 and EDUC 369) during my junior year at University of Washington Seattle Campus. The Dream Project is a student-initiated college-access and retention program that partners UW students with low-income, first-generation high school students in South King County to help with the college admission process and/or post-high school plans. Through the classes, I learned about social mobility, educational opportunity, structural and internalized racism in regards to students, FAFSA implications, and mentorship skills. As a mentor, I was able to create mentorship bonds with six high school seniors who were applying to community colleges, 4 year universities, jobs, and technical schools. This curricular experience was valuable to me because it taught me about personal values, scope of competence, self-development, productive relationships, and mentoring.

• Mentored at Kent-Meridian High School for 1 hour per week for 9 weeks
• Dedicated 4-6 hours per week attending lectures, weekly mentor meetings, and creating agendas for high school mentoring sessions
• Arranged and planned agendas for tasks to accomplish; such as college applications and resumes for mentees
• Supported and mentored six students in attaining financial aid, drafting personal statements, discussing feedback on their improvements based upon their tailored agendas
• Volunteered at the Fall Writing Workshop for high school students at the South King County high schools that Dream Project is partnered with
• Participated in weekly high school breakouts to collaborate with other Dream Project Mentors

Personal Values

One of my most essential values is education. My mom always taught me that the one thing that I will always have and no one can take away from me is my education/knowledge. This advice has been one of the mantras that I live by as I pursue higher education and learn from various experiences that I have been fortunate to have. As a Dream Project Mentor, I shared my values of education and determination through helping high school seniors apply to various post-high school opportunities (i.e. jobs, universities, community colleges, etc.) and supporting them in the process.

Scope of Competence

I know that there is always a chance to learn from others and to keep improving upon the skills that one has already developed. I have never been afraid to admit when I do not know something and do not think that I can do it, especially when I have to facilitate information to others. Hence, I was comfortable in sharing my knowledge of what I knew of the college admission process and showed that skil, yet I would refer to other sources such as the Dream Project Leads for Kent-Meridian or the high school counselors when I did not know the answers to some of my mentees questions.

Self-Development

It can be difficult at times realizing how one develops and grows as a person, especially when that person does not think they are improving because they do not know what they want to do in life. When I started as a Dream Project Mentor, I was afraid that I would not be a good role model because I did not know what I wanted to do with the major I was studying. I also did not know if I was going to be a good mentor because it was my first time doing it. However, I learned that it was a learning process, and how to be a better mentor through practice and feedback from my mentees. I realized that I was developing and growing, even though I was not sure about it at the time.

Productive Relationships

I created relationships with high school seniors, high school counselors, fellow Dream Project mentors/leaders, and instructors through this curricular experience. These interactions had some complexities in figuring out how professional I should be during communications in order to bond and develop a sense of trust. All of these relationships were created to help me provide an impactful mentorship with my mentees through educational structures.

Mentoring

I feel that I have always had this expectation to be a role model and set a good example because I am the first-born in my family, and have been an overachiever in school. Through this expectation, I had to learn to teach and mentor others. As a Dream Project Mentor, I taught others about the college application/admission process and how to navigate through the struggles of senior year of high school. With the particular group of mentees that I had, I also mentored them in sharing how I overcame some of the obstacles that I faced in pursuing higher education as someone who identifies to be in the marginalized population of being a Filipino woman, first-generation college student, a child of immigrants, a Person of Color, and part of a low/middle-income family. There are structural and internal racism/oppressions that make it challenging, but getting accepted at UW made that effort worth it.

After my time as a UW Dream Project Mentor at Kent-Meridian High School during my junior year, I had more confidence in being a mentor and role model to others who needed representation. I have used my leadership competencies of personal values and scope of competence in my work at school and pursuing other experiences related to health. In regards for the future, I believe that the lessons that I learned from this experience made me more open-minded about classes with service-learning components and to give back to the populations that I identify with (i.e. first-generation, People of Color) with the education that I have received from UW. I hope to use my Public Health Bachelor's degree and minor in Diversity to work within King County in regards to health outcomes and the social determinants of health.