This semester, I joined the National Society of Black Engineers. The specific program within this picture was the Mentor-Mentee program kickoff, where I was allowed to meet my mentor and begin to bond with them through different games and conversations.
The overall experience was actually very helpful because we went through the event talking about different resources that we had, such as the tutoring and the supplemental instruction programs, and my mentor helped me with a few math problems when we had extra time. At the beginning of the event, everyone was playing card games so that we could have somewhat of an ice breaker to get to know everyone. They had Uno, normal cards, and a game called “apples to apples.” After getting to know my mentor, we went into one on one sessions where I was allowed to ask him more personal questions, which was really nice because now I know he has had experiences that I can learn from, and he’s from the same major as me. Now I also know that he can help me in certain classes, such as Computer Science and Engineering 2221, as well as the class after that (Software 2). This also goes to show me that I am not alone in my endeavors, and I have others who can help me throughout my college career.
As a whole, the experience was very interesting because I really enjoy meeting new people, and since this person will be helping me out throughout the semester (or year) then I would like to make a good first impression. He’s a very nice person, and we have very similar interests when it comes to schooling and the future, such as struggling to pick between specializing in artificial intelligence or in software development, having trouble finding people to study with in calculus, and trying to balance a social life along with school, and even a job on campus. After we did one on one sessions with the mentors, we came back together as a big group and played a game called “Two truths and a Lie” that was about the mentors and the mentees had to guess which one was the lie. My mentor’s lie was that he had 2 dogs, but he told me he only had a pit bull, so I won that round with my mentor. After that, we had another break to talk to everyone and congregate with other groups of mentees and mentors, and I had fun meeting new people that are first years like me, and I was able to make a study group for calculus with a very nice group of students, and we made a specific time every week to do work together.
Overall, this academic resource will help me very much throughout my career as a first year, as well as my career as a student as a whole. I appreciate this help very much, and I hope to give back to this program in the long run by becoming a mentor myself.