As a freshman, many emotions are taking place, such as being anxious and nervous about starting the next step in the journey of life. The focus of the student should be on academics, building connections, and preparing themselves for the workforce. The last thing a newly admitted students should have to worry about is going into this new phase of life without a mentor.
“You are the company you keep” is a common phrase that I and I’m sure a lot of others heard growing up as a child. It is often times that at the earlier stages of our college career, we’ve never had these types of freedom before. We were always used to waking up early, going to school all day, and leaving in the early afternoon to go back home. It is not until college that we now are going to classes at our own discretion and typically are not under parental supervision anymore.
The best way for new students to figure out about the available resources on campus and how to stay involved is through a mentor who has successfully completed the journey on which they are about to embark. My primary focus will be creating a Mentorship Program for upperclassmen to new students in the same major here at The University of South Carolina. This mentorship program will ensure all newly admitted students feel motivated to come to class due to the available resources and tangible role model. This mentorship program will not only promote inclusivity but, it will allow upperclassmen to earn course credits required for degree completion. Participating in the mentorship program will not be required as an effort to ensure all upperclassmen still satisfy their necessary major requirements. This recommendation will be offered through the University 101 office in an attempt to attract mentors who want to do it, and not ones who are forced to do so.
The first step to developing anything new is starting with a specific plan of action. I plan to use the skills I learned from completing a higher education course titled, EDLP 520: The Teacher as Manager to assist me with navigating the purpose of the mentorship program, how to make it beneficial for those who choose to participate, and develop mentorship requirements. I plan to use my beyond-the-classroom experience of being a U101 Peer Leader to assist me in creating a description for the role of the upperclassmen mentor, mentor role expectations and create a list of goals the mentor should strive to achieve from this role. Secondly, I will use my mentor experience to develop the role of the new student, their expectations, and goals to be met.
The second step to developing the Mentorship Program will be implementing the program on the check sheet completed during advisement for upperclassmen during the year and newly admitted students when they come for summer orientation. The Box will simply say “Mentorship Program for class credit? Yes/No?” “If yes, are you at least a rising sophomore satisfying degree requirements?” Based on the responses received, they will then be asked if they want to mentor one newly admitted student for 3 credit hours or 2 newly admitted students for 6 credit hours. Once the maximum number of mentors requested by newly admitted students during summer orientation has been met, I will use my beyond-the-classroom experience of being a Supply Chain Management Intern for Collins Aerospace to build an excel file that matches each student based on other similar criteria such as hometown, gender, and major.
The final and last step will simply be matching the mentors and mentees. Mentorship for the upperclassmen will be a requirement and will have to be documented and approved by and academic advisor from both parties. They will be required to have 1-on-1 meetings and the mentee will be required to fill out a mentorship review form at the conclusion of the academic year.
The Mentorship Program will be successful and encourage professional communication. Mentorship is very valuable and necessary during the early stages of our college career. After one year of the program being implemented, we will take the summer semester to further evaluate the usefulness of this recommendation. Upon graduation, I would like to leave the university knowing I created a sustainable program that would be beneficial to the university for years to come. In order for this program to run efficiently and effectively it will require these steps that I've discussed being implemented into a handbook that would be given to the University 101 Programs office.