Ivan Martinez ’20 WLAIP Mentor – This past July, I spent the month interning as a Mentor in a summer institute for the Wabash Liberal Arts Immersion Program. During this intensive program, 30 incoming Wabash freshmen stayed on campus and took an English course as well as a few other class modules, and participated in team-building activities and various trips to Indianapolis. Along with 7 other mentors and 3 writing tutors, we were to serve as a “big brother” to these incoming students by providing guidance, advice, and assistance when needed.
From a daily basis, I interacted with the students each day to ask if they were alright and ease their transition from high school to college. Ensuring that the students were fine was my priority, and this included helping students cope with “homesickness”, the stress of a college schedule, and sometimes issues regarding other students. One occasional problem was getting some students to planned sessions on time or to participate in some of the team activities. This is where a significant role of my mentor position applied. While trying to find the balance between being too much of the students’ friend and being too authoritative towards them, I gave the students explanation and motivation to follow through with the rest of the group.
Also as part of my job as a Mentor, I oversaw access to the College’s Allen Center sports facility after operating hours for the students. Along with this, I planned sessions throughout the week to let our guys use the facility, while making sure that the Allen Center was properly closed down after our use of it. Arrangements with Campus Security were also made to help organize these sessions.
This internship provided me with an experience of a leadership role while also allowing me to give back to the College by mentoring the incoming students. From this experience, I will be able to take away organizational and planning skills to better help me in my future as a student as well as a future employee. I also believe I have become a more sociable person from reaching out to students and their families.
Overall, this internship had a very positive impact on me as I had plenty of fun and now have experiences to take away. I would like to thank Dr. Horton and Dr. Koppelmann for providing me with this opportunity to lead. I would also like to thank the Mellon Grant for supporting and making my internship possible.
