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Summary of Mentorship Experience

Over the past year, I’ve loved getting to know my first year mentee, Rachel Goetz. She is a nursing major, sociology minor from Mason, Ohio. What was really exciting is that we seemed to have a lot in common. Rachel expressed to me so many times that nursing is really one of the only fields she could picture herself being in and that, once she figured out she wanted to be a nurse, nothing else made sense. That is exactly how I felt with social work. I could not picture myself doing any other job than being a social worker. We both are really excited about service and doing community work. Rachel is involved in a nursing student organization as well as Cru and ACES, in which she builds relationships and does service work. I am also involved in some service organizations on campus and have really enjoyed working with other students in the community over the past two years. 

 

Despite some of our similarities as to why we got into the fields we have chosen, we do have some differences in the paths we want to take. I am not very set on a specific field of social work, and have really enjoyed learning about the different settings that social workers can be in and the diversity within the field. Rachel, on the other hand, is really set on being a pediatric nurse and knows that she definitely wants to work with kids! I’m so excited for her that she has found her calling and that she knows how she is going to pursue that passion!

 

It was really fun seeing Rachel grow from first to second semester. Since first semester she has grown in her friendships with other ACES students and students she met from other organizations. She has continued to develop her passion for nursing as she has completed more and more classes. She has also discovered some other interests, as she has picked up a sociology minor, to learn more about the issues that exist in our health system and other systems within our country and world. 

 

Along the same vein, I have also grown a lot over the past year, as a mentor, leader, and student. It has been really great to learn from Rachel and to be inspired by her drive and her passion for serving others. I have learned how to be an example as a student and developed my relationship building skills. It has been great to learn through mentorship, to gain more experience being a leader. I have been able to develop a relationship with someone who can somewhat look up to me and come to me for advice and learn from my experiences. I have learned how to use my mistakes and regrets to help others take a different path.

 

Honestly, I did not have to do much to help Rachel in terms of socializing. She was very excited to get involved from day one and has made many friends and cultivated relationships. I was able to encourage her to seek other ways of building relationships and was able to offer some insight into how I made friends in the past. Another part of the experience was validating that the college experience can be difficult sometimes, especially during such an unprecedented time. I was able to tell Rachel that I experienced difficulties too and was also feeling the effects of the pandemic on my experience as well. 

 

There were so many benefits to this program! I felt like I was able to make a fruitful connection to my mentee and learned a lot from the experience. It was great to get to know a first year, especially since I was not able to know many of them due to COVID. I hope my experience was as impactful on Rachel as it was for me!

 

Second Semester Explore Columbus

During our explore Columbus event, Rachel and I decided to get coffee at a campus coffee shop. We went to Cielo cafe and chatted about our semesters. We also did our second semester interview and talked about our majors and hopes for our future careers. It was nice to explore another coffee shop that is close to campus! I have heard so much about Cielo Cafe from several of my friends, but neither of us had ever actually been there! It was so wonderful to get to catch up with Rachel in a relaxed environment and discuss our experiences and feelings about almost a year of college during a pandemic.

I loved getting to talk to Rachel about her passions for nursing and medicine. I felt really connected to her passions for helping others and making an impact on people during a difficult time in their lives. I have a similar passion, and that is part of the reason I chose social work as a major and profession. We have similar feelings about public health and justice in that way and both aim to contribute to creating a better environment and system. I am so excited for Rachel to begin to take some of her major classes next semester and to continue to learn more about herself and her passions. I know that she will do well with nursing, as it seems like she really has a strong foundation in her reasons for pursuing nursing as a career.

During our time at Cielo, we also got to talk about our involvement on campus and how the pandemic has affected it. It seemed like Rachel was able to still get pretty involved on campus, despite the virtual events and limited meetings. She seemed excited to be able to do more in person events and meet more people through her involvements in the coming semesters and be able to do more outreach in the community. I had a similar experience with involvement this semester, being part of several organizations from last year, but not being able to be super involved with them this semester, due to the lack of in person events. However, I am so excited to continue doing outreach and service with these organizations next semester.

The environment of Cielo was very relaxed and welcoming. I would certainly recommend it to a friend, it seems like a good place to do studying or to have coffee and catch up with a friend. I think that the quiet and low key feeling of the coffee shop allowed us to chat, without a lot of distraction or other things going on. Not to mention the coffee was delicious!

Attached to this post is a picture of my sweet mentee, Rachel! This was taken at Cielo cafe and also features my vanilla latte!

Second Semester Mentorship Interview

During my interview this semester with my mentee, Rachel, we got to catch up on her experiences during her first year at OSU and I got to learn more about her and her passions! We discussed if Rachel was enjoying her major thus far, and she reflected that she was enjoying where she was, although currently it is a lot of General Education courses. However, she did note that nursing was the only thing she could really picture herself doing, and that she is excited about the future and the classes she is going to take.

Next, we talked about her experience getting involved on campus. Despite the pandemic,  it seemed like Rachel was able to get pretty involved with several organizations. She is involved with Cru and several bible studies and small groups through Cru. She is also involved in NSPIRE, a nursing club in which they do outreach and hear from guest speakers in the medical field. It also seems like NSPIRE will be able to do more in person outreach during the coming semesters when things are more in person!

We also discussed living in the ACES living and learning community in Smith Steeb. Rachel reflected that living in a community of ACES scholars has been nice, getting to know people with similar majors and passions as her. However, I think that the pandemic has created some of a lack of quality community, not being able to really get to know a lot of people in the program.

Furthermore, we discussed her future career plans and whether or not they have changed since getting some more experience in the major. It seems like Rachel has a pretty set plan for her future plans to be a nurse. She seems really interested in pediatrics and has recently adopted a minor in sociology. This minor will help her learn more about the health disparities in America and the different reasons and social problems that will impact her future patients. She also mentioned a possible interest in being a travel nurse. She is also enjoying exploring the possibilities of the different paths she could take as a nurse, considering it is such a diverse field. We also discussed the appeal of diverse majors, as social work is also a super diverse field.

Lastly, we discussed our favorite memories for this past year. Rachel said that one of her favorite memories since coming to campus was the day that she moved back into Smith Steeb after winter break. Many of the other favorite memories she told me about were centered around her experiences spending time with her roommate and her friends on her floor. It was very nice to hear about her experiences having fun on her floor because it seems like the pandemic has stopped so many people from having fun social experiences.