Peer Mentoring Skills: Leveraging your experience to help others succeed

Peer Mentoring Skills:Leveraging your experience to help others succeed Catherine Salole Director, Centre for Student Community & Leadership Development

We will explore: • How your experiences will benefit incoming students • How your experiences may inhibit incoming students • Communication skills as a strategy to avoid this • The “Do’s and Don’ts” of mentorship

Puzzle Time: In your groups, complete the puzzle on your table as quickly as you can.

Puzzle Lessons (part 1): • What was your experience completing the puzzle? • What were the challenges? How did you overcome them? • Why were you successful in overcoming them?

Tell me about you: • Reflection exercise – write everything that comes to mind about…. • The successes you have had as a York student • The challenges you have had as a York student • The positive experiences you have had as a York student • Any negative experiences you have had here at York • Someone who has had a great impact on you as a student • The knowledge, skills and experience you have gained that you feel confident you are ready to share with others

The Benefit of your Experience: How might your experiences benefit an incoming student?

The Benefit of your Experience: • Navigating the system • How and where to get help • How to get good grades • How to make meaningful connections • How to talk to faculty • How to make the most of classes • How to get what you need from your readings • Knowing the language and culture of university

Mentoring Defined: Learners are helped to higher levels of understanding and performance through collaborative interaction with a more capable peer.

Puzzle Lessons (part 2): What would you say if I told you that none of the puzzles were/are incomplete?

The Pitfalls of Experience: What drawbacks might there be to imparting our own experience to others?

The Pitfalls of Experience: • What worked for me may not work for others • Academic rules change from year to year • Can come across as patronizing • Not about us! The focus should be the mentee • We make assumptions and have biases • We pass along our baggage and close off what might be valuable avenues for our mentee

Key Messages Recap: • Important to put yourself in your mentee’s shoes • Borrow from your mentors song sheet • Your experience is a gift to your mentee…however…. • Your mentee’s experiences may be different than yours • So...own your experience as yours and use it to tell YOUR story

Active Listening: • Strategy to connect with those who are different • Active Listening Handout

Ethics of Mentoring:

Peer Mentoring Skills: Leveraging your experience to help others succeed