8 Notes
Mentoring
During last semester I was the methods coach for team K.I.S.S. (keep it simplex stupid), one of the two 1st year student teams working through Simplex process to solve issues at Herron for Collaborative Studio class. As team K.I.S.S. were working on solving the smoking issue at Herron, my role was to work with them to define and choose the appropriate design participatory methods to incorporate them into their process, as well as identifying when and how to use them.
One of the major things I learned as a coach in general was how to give effective feedback and how feedback is more useful and more valuable when it’s asked for not imposed.
This semester, each one of us, the 2nd year grad students, is paired with a 1st year grad student as their mentor. My mentee is Mikaila Hambel. And as a start we were asked to investigate the nature of the mentor/mentee relationship since it’s new to us.
The first thing I learned was that it’s a two way relationship that’s not only beneficial for the mentee in their learning process but also for the mentor as well.
So as a mentor I will try to be proactive, listen actively, show interest, practice leadership skills and most importantly be supportive. My experience in this area will be reflected upon in this blog.
It was pretty busy last week so my mentee and me didn’t get a chance to meet until Friday evening. We discussed the times we would be available to meet and how often we wanted to meet as well as our desired outcome of this opportunity.
I’ve only known Mikaila for almost 6 months now, but after my experience with her as the methods coach for K.I.S.S. I learned how passionate she is about design and how persistent, confident and reliable she is. Not to forget her hilarious dark sense of humor and how fun her desk in the studio is. So I’m pretty excited about working with her.
