My first-year mentee was Ranajha who is a social work major from Columbus, Ohio. Over the year, I really enjoyed learning about her and checking in to see how her year was going. Some things that we had in common were our hometowns, as we were both raised in Columbus and were able to bond off of our varied experiences in the city. We both also have a passion for helping others and talked a lot about our different experiences of service. A big difference that we had was our majors, as she is a social work major and mine is environmental policy and decision making. Even though we had different major we enjoyed talking about academics and learning about each others areas of study. Something that I believe Ranajha grew in throughout the year was her confidence in her academics and studying habits. In the beginning of the year, she expressed that she was unsure of how what she learned in high school (studying wise) would transfer over to a college setting. By the end of the year however, Ranajha was confident in her studying abilities and was able to achieve above a 3.5 GPA both semesters. Ranajha also became more confident in the college experience as a whole. At the beginning of the year she didn’t really know what she wanted to become involved in or what kind service she wanted to immerse in, but now she has shared with me so many different clubs and service opportunities she has participated in and seems very confident about taking advantage of all the Ohio State has to offer.
When I first started the mentorship program for ACES, I was very apprehensive about my leadership skills and how I could help a freshman in their transition to college life. After participating in this experience, I can say that I grew a lot as a leader, mentor, and friend. I never knew how much my knowledge could help someone transition to the college lifestyle and I think that it was really cool to see how I could help out in different situations, whether it be helping Ranajha find service hour opportunities or telling her about the clubs I am involved in on campus. One of the biggest things I learned was that a lot of what being a mentor entailed was being a friendly face and a helping hand to my mentee. I think that it was nice for her to know one more person around campus and have someone that she could reach out to if she had any questions about ACES or college life in general. As far as my leadership skills I think I gained a lot of confidence in giving advice and just being there for someone. I also think that an important skill that I grew further during my time as a mentee is admitting when you don’t know something. Sometimes, Ranajha would ask me a question that I didn’t have an answer for and instead of just making something up to act superior, we learned together and sought out the resources to answer her question. I also think that it is important to note that Ranajha was not the only person learning from this experience. I learned so much from Ranajha if not even more than she did from me and I am very grateful for her willingness to share her experiences with me. I gave Ranajha a lot of advice about how to get service hours for ACES including what clubs I am involved in and suggesting opportunities I thought she might be interested in. I also gave her advice on how to be successful and make the most out of the ACES program by going to as many activities as possible.
Some of the benefits of the mentorship program were that I was able to become friends with someone outside of my normal ACES friends. Sometimes I find it hard to branch out when all of my close friends are also apart of this scholars program, so I thought it was really nice to be able to get out of my comfort zone and spend time with someone new. I think that both me and my mentee gained a lot from our relationship and I also think it was helpful for Ranajha to have someone older to turn to when she had questions. Overall, I really enjoyed this program and found that it aided in my leadership development greatly. I do not think that my college experience would be the same without this program that I was fortunate enough to be a part of.