Mentoring
Peer mentoring
In May 2019, I attended a retreat and became a part of NC State’s 2019-2020 Graduate Peer Mentoring Collaborative. I had peer mentors throughout my master’s program, but I was never aware of it until participating in this retreat.
I realized I never had a peer mentor during my time as a Ph. D. student and I always questioned why I felt isolated and reminisced about my time with my peers at Auburn University. I always had someone to bounce ideas off of, someone who can absorb some of my energy from my distress as they listened to me, someone who questioned why I did things as I did instead of agreeing with me. I had great peers and peer mentors who helped me improve my teaching skills when I was Auburn.
Reflecting on what I learned from the retreat was integral for helping me develop a strong interest with mentoring, to help my fellow graduate students realize they are not alone, but united, we can all succeed with our programs and careers! Please check out my mentoring statement for my mentoring philosophy!
To help give back to my graduate community, I developed a peer mentoring program for my current department (Prestage Department of Poultry Science). The program was setup as a mentor-mentee relationship and I served as the facilitator. Two mentors had at least one mentee they regularly corresponded with at least once a week to answer questions or be a person to talk to. Those mentors reported to me if there is something they do not feel comfortable answering for their mentee or checked in to ensure mentees are doing well. My responsibility as facilitator was to ensure mentor-mentees were building their relationships and allowing these students to build trust with each other because I passed the program to the mentors to continue serving new graduate students in the department.
Mentors, mentees, and I met once a month as a group to reconnect and update everybody’s status. I also implemented some activities that the Graduate School Peer Mentoring cohort conduct as team building exercises such as peer coaching.
I emphasize coaching as my mentoring style by actively listening and questioning my mentees on some of their problems/questions. Coaching helps build self-awareness and confidence with mentees as they discover their own solutions instead of choice being given to them.
