Becoming a Role Model

So this week in class we looked at becoming a role model. I'd like to thank Rachel and Amy for doing such a great job. The question at the beginning of class got us to think about who was one of our role models and what common values do they have that make us feel that way. I believe that my parents were my role models as I was growing up. They were always very responsible accepting the situations that life threw at them. They never tried to blame something else for something or came up with excuses not to do something, they always took responsibility. My dad was also a man of positive thinking. He could somehow take the worst of a situation and turn it into something positive along the way by using his humor.
The activity that Amy and Rachel came up with was a very good one. They put three of the values on the board in the chapter and first we chose which one was our strength and then later which was our weakness. My strengths that I could remember were adaptability, creativity, and gratitude. When discussing adaptability with the others, we all sort of centered around how we could adapt to different situations during the day. If something came up during the day, we could easily adjust and bounce back. I myself, thought that I can adapt to newer environments along with newer ideas when given time. I think that being creative is also one of my strong points. I feel like I am someone who is trying to discover new ways or ideas of doing something. I try to never do something repetitive time after time. Doing the same thing day after day really bothers me for some reason so trying to come up with new and exiting alternatives is a good way to deal with it. My other strength was also gratitude. I try to take nothing for granite in my life. I'm always given new opportunities that others may not be as fortunate to be given. If you start taking things for granite in your life, you may lose something important to you in the blink of an eye without knowing.
We also discussed some of the values that we see weakness in. The two that I remember were focus and responsibility. I seem to have trouble focusing on one thing at one time. I usually am so focused on many different things at one time it makes it hard for me to pay most of my attention to some of the more important issues. I think I can make this a strong point of mine if I just slow down and really think about one issue instead of my mind racing from point to point. My other weakness was responsibility. I'm not totally irresponsible, it just seems like I make excuses for the small things that are going on. I try to make little excuses for not doing something that I probably should have. I like to thank Amy and Rachel for doing such a great job again, they lead the class very well with their activity. It really had me thinking about all the different values that attribute to a being a good peer mentor.

Self-Awareness

This week in class we went through the chapter Understanding Self Awareness. I thought Anthony and Beth did and awesome job leading the class. I liked the way everyone responded to the question asked at the beginning of the class. They asked us what level of self-awareness we thought was the most important and why. It was very interesting to listen to everyone as they went around the room describing which level of awareness they thought was most important. I, myself chose social awareness. When I first arrived at Iowa State my freshmen year their were many new experiences that I had to get used to. On the first day of classes their were many expectations for us that I didn't realize would be so important. I eventually became comfortable with these expectations and understood that they would help me to become a better person. Being comfortable around new people was also a very new for me after coming from a small high school. I ultimately adjusted to these new situations and developed long lasting relationships with these new people in that new environment. After we finished answering, we moved onto a new question involving our past experiences and how they helped us to become more self-aware. Ever since I was a young lad and old enough to help out on the farm, I was constantly working. It never seemed like we had a break, it was always work, work, and more work. In the end I realized it has made me not only to become an independent, hardworking kid but that once I put my mind to something I stay focused. Also, while growing up in a small knit farming community, I noticed how we all watched out for each other. When a few of our neighbors become critically ill, we didn't ask if they needed help, it was just something you did because you cared about them. Situations like that have made me realize that there are people their for you when you need help. It has helped me appreciate the heartfelt things people do for each other. It has had a huge impact on my life after leaving home.
My role in helping students to become self-aware is to influence them in some way to take a look at themselves and help them understand their thoughts, feelings, and actions. I want to help them realize who they really are as a person and to help find their own identity. Becoming a new student at a large university is a very critical issue. They can decide what kind of identity they want to develop or ask if they should just be themselves. I think I can accomplish this by getting to really know these students and being their for them as someone they can trust, being someone who they can come to in times of trouble.
Improving self-awareness is something I never really have thought of as being a issue of discussion for me. After Beth and Anthony were finished leading the class, I looked back and thought to myself that this is a really deep subject. I look back at my life and think about the past and appreciate all the things people have done for me that I really haven't given back enough. It makes me think about what I can do for other people and for myself. Just becoming aware of the other people around me more often can help to understand their background and who they really are as a person. I want to improve my emotional awareness as well. Am I really content with myself and even others around me? Realizing the circumstances of some situations will help me to improve my awareness.

Establishing and Maintaining Relationships

So this week we went over two sections in class, defining roles and establishing and maintaining relationships. Primarily establishing and maintaining relationships. I really liked the way Kelly and Nick decided to lead the class starting off with the question about what kind of oppurtunities we have enjoyed since being here at Iowa State and how we would pass them on to new students. Their are so many oppurtunities that I don't think that I could list them all but I would have to say that in the last year or so being involved in the learning communities and being in differnet clubs and organizations were a few of my favorites. I really liked the way they implemented a work sheet into class where we decided to come up with our own definitions of the five roles of the peer mentor. In my group we defined a trusted friend as someone who you could rely on, somebody you could talk to about certain information. Also somebody that could be their for you.
Deb and I began the class with a question involving the establishment of the relationship with our first peer mentors and what we remembered about them. During the class we implemented some scenarios that were acted out. After the skits were completed we asked what was done right and what could have been better. The first scenario involved commitment. When you commit or promise to do something, you follow through on it. You accepted that challenge and if you fail to commit, you could damge your credibility.
The seconed skit involved confidentiality. Basically, what I learned from this is that if someone needs assistance and comes to you and the issue is said in confidence, you need to protect that person by not sharing that information with other people. If the situation happens to be desperate and your not sure what to do you can ask for guidance from someone higher in the program such as Allie, Silas, or Deborah. We were told that in the past that their have been situations that need the help of others and not just ourselves.
The final skit we went through involved that of boundaries. We are in a position that represents this program. One important thing to establish early on is the idea of boundaries. We want the students to open up to us and share their problems but we do not want to become too involved with their personal issues. Your in a position where you can set the boundaries and the lines not to be crossed.
Finally, we asked the question "Why are we here?" When becoming a peer mentor we have to clarify our roles. Students may not believe what your trying to do is helpful unless they understand your personal motive. In the book it mentions that they need to know that we have a real concern for their well-being and success as a student. Without this knowledge, why should they trust us in helping them.

Week 3: Defining Roles, LC Institute, and ISLE

This week for out blogs we were required to analyze the reading to see how it pertains to our work as peer mentors. Their are many important roles a peer mentor has when impacting the lives of students. One of the more important roles to me is being a trusted friend. Not being trustworthy can have a huge impression on the way somebody perceives you. When I was a new student here at Iowa State, being trustworthy was one of the most important things I based a person on. If I felt like a could trust someone, I could establish a larger relationship with that person. I also thought the connecting link was very important. In our first semester I felt like there was places that I just naturally belonged, whether it was with a group of friends or an experience I enjoyed. Being a learning coach was very important for the peer mentors that mentored me as a first year student. I was taught fundamentals, learning strategies, and time management skills that really helped me to succeed in my first year. Being a leader was also very important for my peer mentor when I was a freshmen. They stepped up and took the challenge to help new students get through their first semester. I acknowledged that they were someone that has been through these first year experiences and they are somebody I could trust to lead me to success.

Last Friday, I attended the Learning Institute. I went to the session, "Underprepared vs Underperforming." In this session we defined what really was being underprepared which referred to as students who's academic skills fall below those needed to be successful in college. We defined underperforming as a student who appears to have an academic background to be successful in college courses, but in actuality, that person is not seeing positive results. During the session we went through a few assumptions, one being that the problem lies within the high schools ineffectively preparing students for college education. We split into different sections of the group to figure out if we agreed or disagreed. It was very interesting to listen to the reasoning from both faculty and students from their point of view on this particular assumption.

On Saturday I attended ISLE. I enjoyed listening to the keynote speaker talking to us about relationships and just general things pertaining to life. It was very engaging and informative. After that I went to the session on interviewing. It's not that I'm terrible at interviewing, it's just that I could do much better to prepare myself for future reference. I learned new ways to dress, begin, and end an interview that I would have never known without attending. It was very helpful in not only preparing myself for an interview but for events in the future.