Collaborative Mentoring Program Analysis

Mentoring programs are often designed for the benefit of mentees, and they carry great potential in enhancing one’s personal and professional growth. The benefits of mentoring, however, often extend far beyond the relationship's initial purpose and can yield many reciprocal benefits for all those involved: the mentees, the mentors, and the community. As such, there are a number of tangible benefits that we, as mentors, can derive from our experiences. Prior to my involvement with the Collaborative Mentoring Program, the premise of service-learning was a relatively novel concept to me. However, through my involvement, I have gained tremendous insight into its effectiveness and utility as a catalyst for strengthening communities, engaging in
Many of these students were often on trajectories that would make them the first in their families to pursue higher level education. As a result, I realized that youth mentors often possess somewhat of a dual role. In one sense, we are responsible for their academic learning by facilitating and implementing classroom methodologies. In another sense, however, we can also act as role models for the students; we can provide them with someone whom they could potentially emulate and model their behavior
They have provided me with a unique awareness of the importance of individual psychosocial factors during communication and interactions. It is this awareness that has facilitated my own understanding and appreciation for the practice of medicine. Traditional medicine has often emphasized a biomedical approach to health and illness; which focuses narrowly on the biological factors involved in disease risk and occurrence. It is easy to lose sight that health and illness also exist past a cellular and molecular level and encompass a variety of social and psychological factors. An individual fundamentally resides at the intersection of the social and biological, and by coalescing these factors, we can gain tremendous insight about the development of illness in individuals. Youth mentoring has allowed me to interpret and understand the behaviors of the adolescents I work with, taken into consideration both the contributing factors of their psychological life and their social context. My experiences have instilled in me an understanding of how to apply knowledge of human behavior and psychodynamics to professional encounters which will be invaluable towards my own development and future career in medicine. My interactions with these students have taught