Tonight I met my mentees for the UCLA Alumni Mentor program!  It was really fun and I’m looking forward to building strong relationships with them.  As far as I know, we’re on our own now that we’ve been matched up, so I’m going to come up with some fun things we can do together over the course of this year.  I’m really looking forward to learning about these two that I have been matched with.  One is a first year just embarking on the college experience and one is a fourth year, getting ready to transition out.  I hope that I have some useful insight to offer them both!

I remember back when I was a fourth year, just returning from a year abroad in England.  I had opted to live on campus again and many of the friends I made in the rooms around me were first years.  I think it was then that I started to really have some mentoring kind of role.  I had amassed a lot of knowledge in those years of undergrad living and had so much to share about not just the UCLA campus, but college life in general.  It’s crazy to think that they are now fourth years.  In my mind, they’re still first years, full of energy and inexperience.  But alas, they have grown so much and learned a lot over these years.  It’s pretty cool.

I hope that I prove to be a good mentor, even if I am still pretty fresh out of college.  Last year I opted not to participate because I felt I didn’t have enough to offer – no real world experience, no full-time job, or any of that “grownup” stuff.  This time around I was eager because I’ve been working for many months now and I’ve had some really great experiences since I left college.  Between that and all the internships and jobs and student organizations I have under my belt, I feel like I can contribute something useful now.  It’ll be a learning process for me and them, and I’m glad to have this to look forward to and plan for.  🙂