Peer Mentor Ethics

This week in class we talked about possible situations that we could encounter as peer mentors. I think this lesson was extremely important. Because no student is exactly like any other, it is important to be prepared for as many different scenarios as possible. Splitting into groups and discussing several possible situations helped me understand the large spectrum of issues we could enter in the fall.

As a peer mentor I think it is important to maintain a professional relationship while still being personable enough where our mentees feel comfortable coming to us with any problems they have. This combination is best achieved through mutual respect, confidentiality, and reliability. Mutual respect creates a professional atmosphere. Respect also makes people feel like equals which encourages communication. Maintaining a mentee's privacy will increase their trust in you and will make them feel more comfortable telling you about certain issues that they might not tell someone else. Finally, being a reliable resource for your students increases the trust they have in you. If you can't be a consistently reliable resource then they may stop coming to you with questions or problems they have. Overall I thought class this week was very good. I definitely feel more prepared now for the variety of situations my students may come to me with.

So far I have had a great time filming for the DST project. It felt good to do some acting again. I haven't done anything like that since high school. Can't wait to finish up the filming and see what the finished product looks like.