Saturday, November 20, 2010
College Mentoring Program Session II.
I just came out the second CMP session as part of our course requirements this semester. I was very pleased when I read my mentee's college paper, and the way he decided to write it reminded me a lot of how I wrote my college application essay back in 2007. He started out with a creative writing piece about how he wants to direct a particular movie that has impacted him from a novel he read. I think that having a personal story that shows creativity and passion is the best way to go about writing for a college admissions office, and I think my mentee really hit the nail on the head with his essay. After I edited the paper for grammar and some other content issues, we started talking about what he wants to do after highschool and what kinds of careers he was looking at to pursue. He mentioned that besides film directing he was interested in a career as a politician. One of his teachers had told him he had natural speaking skills and would be apt to pursue a career in politics. At the end of the session I gave him some advice about how to pursue his interests and what to look for in a college when applying for specific careers or programs. Perhaps the most important advice I gave him was not to go into college with a set plan about what he wanted to do, but rather to take different classes and explore a variety of interests to see if he finds something he truly enjoys.
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It sound like you had a great time! I'm so glad to hear that you had a successful experience. It is wonderful to hear that he is getting positive reinforcement from his teachers too.
ReplyDeleteI love the last piece of advice you gave your mentee, because when I worked with the College Mentoring Program last year at Richmond Community High School, a lot of the students had their minds set on what they wanted to go to college for. I came into college the same way, knowing that I wanted to be a pediatrician (pretty much since I was 8). However, when I was applying to college, my high school counselor told me to explore other areas as well just to widen out in my knowledge. So, my first year, along with all my pre-med classes, I took a few random classes and changed my mind plenty of times as to what career I wanted to pursue. Although, none of the other career paths interested me as much as Pediatrics, I realized that I love other things too, like non-profit work. Now, I'm a sociology major planning on getting an MD/MPH and opening some type of non-profit pediatrics center at some point in my life. So as I said, I think that last piece of advice was a great one, because it can really help students figure out exactly what they want to do with the rest of their lives. :-)
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