Week 5

Happy Valentine’s Day to all!! A wonderful day to remember that no matter what, you are loved  This past week we discussed our future relationships we must establish with our mentees. Deb and Joey did an excellent job in involving the class is some active skits that helped us visualize possible scenarios we may be presented with in our future peer mentor/mentee relationships.

The chapter discussed different components to establishing and maintaining healthy relationships with our future mentees. Ground rules are outlined as honesty, commitment, boundaries, confidentiality, and expectations.

The honesty component points out the essential need for equality between the mentor and mentee in their levels of trust for each other. If we expect honesty from our mentees then we must also be honest with them. I try my hardest to be honest in all of my relationships and in return I want others to be honest with me. Relationships can be a lot deeper and clearer when there is honesty as a foundation.

Commitment is one of my biggest areas of attention when I look at relationships that I have. If I’m going to be willing to commit to someone and/or something I expect the same in return. It drives me crazy when someone says they will do something and then do not commit to it. In my opinion, having mutual commitment is one of the post important areas to establishing and maintaining a healthy relationship.

Clarifying boundaries is one of the more challenging components to a peer mentor/mentee relationship. We have to remember that even though we still are students and peer mentors we are also an authority figure. I know I want my mentees to be able to trust me and know what they can come to me with anything. I also want them to be very aware that the relationship between us should be treated as any instructor to student relationship.

The confidentiality component is another important part to a mentor/mentee relationship that kind of goes along with the honesty component. I want my mentees to be honest with me as I will be honest with them. But I also want the confidentiality to always exist within that honesty. It’s another important foundation to trust that builds a healthy relationship.

The final part to developing a healthy relationship with my mentees lies within the expectations between both of us. They expect to learn from me, trust me, and have me there for them as their mentor. They rely on my and I expect to be able to rely on them too. Even though we each have our own expectations in our peer mentor to mentee relationship, it is also important to define a line in unrealistic expectations. When we know what to expect in a relationship, it clarifies all other essentials to establishing and maintaining our healthy peer mentor/mentee relationships.