Episode 5 – Peer Mentors for Success

[0:00:00 Speaker 0] Hello and welcome to Episode five of The Sounds of Success Podcast. My name is Cristina Buoy. I’m Phil Butler, and this week we’re going to be talking about the mentors from the Office of Student Success with us. Today we have Maya, who is a pace mentor, Liquisa, who is a U turn mentor, and Ozil, who is an FSP mentor. They’re quite the trio. This is our first episode featuring students, and so we’re really, really excited. Well, well, today is an interesting opportunity for us, so we’re doing a first here on the podcast instead of talking to faculty and staff. We’ve brought some students to talk to you today. I’m really excited to interview

[0:00:55 Speaker 1] some students. How about you, Christina?

[0:00:56 Speaker 0] I’m super excited. All three of the students that were talking Thio our mentors in mentor programs at the Office of Student Success. They were all handpicked by their program leaders. So they’re really awesome guests and we’re super excited toe have them talk to y’all. And for those of you who are mentees in the Office of student Success mentor programs, you will definitely recognize some of these mentors. Well, welcome everyone. Why don’t you just gonna say your name. You know where you’re from? All the all the usual intro stuff, right? When when you break the ice, don’t you go first. Maya, my name is Maya. I am a junior psychology major. Like Christina said, I am a basement. Or but I am pre physical therapy. How bout you mosey?

[0:01:46 Speaker 1] L Well, thanks for having me. First and foremost. My name is Peter. Yeah, Thank you. Very sincerely, Gomez. I’m a 30 economics student mining in business. This is my second year as an FSP mentor from Laredo, Texas, in my hometown, South Texas.

[0:02:03 Speaker 0] Represent Laredo, the town of tacos. My favorite tacos in Texas. E best s on last but not least. Pack Easa, my dear, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you. Thanks for being on the podcast. Yeah, of course. Well, my name is Liquisa. Um, when you turn Mentor. I’ve been mentoring for three years now, and I’m also senior. I’ve also worked in the S s is a front desk assistants. So that husband gray, my major psychology and among business minor. So it looks like we’ve got a pretty good mix. And for those of you who didn’t catch it. We do have to psychology majors and two economics miners and to people who are interested in health routes. So it’s a pretty awesome mix and definitely something that people don’t really expect out of liberal arts major. So if you’ve listened to our last episode with Dr Carter, you’ll notice that we really emphasize in liberal arts that you could do anything with your major. You could go down any path with your major. Your major is not something that should hold you back. It should be something that sets you apart from other people so we can go ahead and jump right into the interview. Today. We just want to really talk about what it means for thes mentors to be in their role and how they got here and what it is that they feel should be known for first of your students. So the very first question that I have for y’all it’s kind of a given. But what does being a mentor mean to you and why do you feel like having that role is important both to you or to the students that you mentor? So I’ve talked about this a lot with my own paste mentees, but kind of the main reason why I was even hired to be a mentor for Pace is because I really didn’t like the program that was that. I was in a good motivator, right? And it’s like it sounds crazy. Like Why then why would you be picked to be a mentor? But the whole reason is because I had such a bad time. I kind of wanted to become a mentor to help kids who are inevitably going to go through that, uh and so that was kind of my motivation to do it. And it’s one of those things where it’s really hard to kind of make your mark or like, do something good for the world and like, especially at such a huge university. And I thought that this was something that I could dio, even if you help one student like have a better year than they would have had. Absolutely. For those of you who don’t know, pace is a first year program where if you didn’t receive traditional acceptance to the university, pace is kind of an alternative route to be admitted to the university full time your sophomore year and each pay student has a mentor just like you would in FSP. And Maya is the person where at orientation, we ask them, you know, Hey, how does it feel to be a pay student and they’re all like this sucks. I hate this. Why am I here? And then we said Maya and Maya is like, Guess what? I hated it too. So Maya has always been super duper riel. Very blunt. And her mentees love her for that. Yeah, but something I wanted to mention just in any case, that someone who’s thinking about accepting their pace decision. I didn’t hate pace because pace sucked. It was because I came from a high school where we were very competitive and going to community college was Sina’s like you were an idiot, basically which obviously, yeah, but I was basically groomed to think that So then now here I am. After working so hard now, I’m technically going to community college. And so that was really hard on me for my entire freshman year. I was just, like, totally bogged down by that thought. Even though it was like my own, I was making it up in my head like nobody I was doing. Um and yeah, it could be really hard. So you it’s kind of like being a mentors showing how you overcame those struggles and not to say you ended up on top. But like you, in a way, you did. And then you could turn around and help the other people, um, kind of climb up the ladder A swell. That’s awesome. You were cut from the same cloth. My, you know, it’s a big part of why I do this work, because I was not a great student. I made a lot of mistakes, and I hope that I can impart some knowledge on current students on how toe, you know, avoid some of the pitfalls I found myself in. Let’s see, How about you? I see how what What’s being a mentor mean to you?

[0:06:47 Speaker 1] Well, first of all, I wanna do this, eh? So I just wanna touch on like I really appreciate on I really, really a lot to my office about being authentic as a mentor, just being transparent with your meant. It is really important, you know, not not giving off this like false person on like no

[0:07:02 Speaker 0] bs, right people through that

[0:07:04 Speaker 1] eso actually before that into like what exactly? Being meant to mean to me, I think is important too quickly talk about what the foundation scholars program is and the purpose it serves Really. S p s a scholar program for first to U T students under the College of Low Broads that is designed to help us, his students, to ensure that they have a smoother transition to college. As a currently mentor in this program, my role now is to provide guidance and support and advice to other FSP mentors and as well as, of course, my group of mentee. So is that just get to be a resource for other students? First

[0:07:35 Speaker 0] you tell people, right there’s like, you get that warm feeling inside help? Yeah, of course.

[0:07:41 Speaker 1] Um and yeah, it’s probably taught ballet, but it’s reflects a lot to like my experience and my experience is a big reason why I wanted to become a mentor. I went through some serious adversity. My first message was hospitalized like the first few weeks of college, and, uh, and my and my mentor, the old FSP adviser asthma who used to work. She really helped me get through it. I’m going for them. I probably wouldn’t be where I am right now. So I applied to be mentor just because I throughout my first year I learned so much in terms of like how to navigate the university and you know, all these different academic resources and just the ins and outs review of college. So whether they like I was the first generations with it, which is why I wasn’t really too familiar with, Like, you know, what’s expected. All most of my mentors have been first generation as well, so they really relate to where I was at my first semester at the university. You know, the transition is really what it’s about. Like the transition from high school to college is what it’s about, Um, and just being able to be there for them and and just guide them through that it’s really important.

[0:08:44 Speaker 0] I couldn’t agree with you more. Yeah, and it’s super rewarding, right? Like we don’t talk a lot about it, but it’s It’s not rewards in the tangible sense, right? Like nobody’s dumping a bucket full of treasure at your front door to do some of this work. But you know, it does. You get that like that happy feeling inside, knowing that you helped somebody else. How about you? Picky? So don’t you tell us a little bit about your involvement with U Turn and being a mentor? Yeah, of course, was to fall. Um, so you turn is a program for students who are on academic probation or students who struggle academically. And there’s a lot of struggles that students have moving on to the university and learning to adapt. Some students are first generation like myself. We don’t know what’s going on. High school is so different. We have a routine. You’re guided on what to do from a to Z. When you goto. I have to call it. It’s all on you And yeah, and a lot of students struggle with that. U turn is basically a support system for students who are struggling, and being a mentor for me is really important, especially with U turn because through u turn Before you turned, I didn’t know anything. You turn in something that helped helped me add value to my academic and professional and my mental health eso It was a source that provided guidance for me and being the mental Theresa reported because I wanna move that own to other mentees. I want to help them in any way possible. Make this journey easy for them. Through the knowledge I have learned and experience through u Turn and being a mentor myself. Yeah, they’re such good people I love this is this is like a Knauss, um, conversation. We happening like this Just like it warms my cold Covic heart. It really does. I love talking to pure mentors because you all are just always so transparent and vulnerable about what you’re going through and what you went through. I think that, um, for a lot of students who were transitioning from high school to college, you know, in high school, you were always talking about like I didn’t study at all. And I got a 95 on this test or I started this essay two minutes ago and I got an A. And so you’re just used to that level of competition and that level of ease with which everything comes to you so easily, and then you get to college like Patties a said It is all on you. Nobody is their toe walk you toe lunch. Nobody is there to make sure that you aren’t wandering the hallways during fourth period gym. You know it’s all on you. If you want to skip class, no one is going to stop you. And so that that level of just you’re all on your own and it all comes down to you is really difficult to adjust to. And I feel like a lot of students, especially first generation students, think that struggling is a bad thing when really struggling just means that you’re growing. And so when you were first year student, what we’re struggles that you went through. I know Oziel. You talked about this a little bit as well. But who did you reach out to for help? And who is your mentor now that your upperclassmen? So when I was a freshman, as I said, I had like a terrible year. I was I was never formally diagnosed, but I felt very depressed. I would just sit in my dorm room all day, every day, every night. I would never go out, so I was just sad and I didn’t know why, because it was a combination of college already being difficulty in that first transition. But then I was struggling with the whole idea of being in pace and going part time to community college. So it was just kind of adding up. And my first year I didn’t reach out for help. And that is like one of my biggest e. I don’t want to say regrets, because now I’ve learned from it. But, like, maybe I wouldn’t have had to go through that by myself kind of thing, So I definitely should have reached out to somebody. But I was convinced that nobody knew what I was talking about. And that kind of goes back to why I became a mentor is because when I was a freshman, all of the mentors, my here, like, really hyped up pace, and I didn’t I didn’t like, see that any of them knew or had felt what I had felt as a freshman that, like I didn’t think Pace was as great as everybody else thought. Um, it did take me a whole year Now I think it is like one of the greatest things that’s happened to me, but at the time, nobody I thought nobody would understand. So I didn’t reach out. Um, but then came my sophomore year, and I finally reached out to the pace adviser Jr just about my struggles with mental health and was able to kind of be open with me at the same time. We talked about how mentors kind of need to be vulnerable, a swell, and I think that really helped him with. There are just talking about her own mental health journey things with that, and so she would reference me to somebody else. And that’s kind of how I’ve been able to improve. But now I reach out to my sister. She’s a lot older than me, but something like a huge part of my life right now is going on that pre health track, and I think it’s really important to find some a mentor who has gone through the same thing that you have. So she has gone through the same thing, and so she and she succeeded. So I like how I’m able to go to her for advice and kind of see the struggles that she went to, and I’m like, what if I don’t get, like a perfect grade in this class and she’s like I didn’t and I still like I still got into a fantastic grad school because it doesn’t matter and it’s always gonna thio kind of have a third party be able to tell you like this is reality. You’re just not thinking like that. So, yeah, I just I think it’s important in a mentor to find somebody who kind of has gone through the same pathway, Which is which is why it’s great for pace, how all the mentors have already gone through pace. We’re all we’re all kind of different, less faras majors go how we grew up our own experiences and were able to kind of refer the students to certain mentors, depending on who would relate to them the most. What’s going on with them? But, yeah, I didn’t reach out freshman year. I wish I had on DNA. I have mentors, and I’m doing a lot better. So success stories? Yeah, just

[0:15:23 Speaker 1] as my experience being a mentor. Um, enforcing reassurance is a major part of being a mentor. Thio Times thes First year college students like they battling process here Jim like crazy. Oh,

[0:15:34 Speaker 0] my God. Especially first Gen students.

[0:15:38 Speaker 1] Yeah, I know I was there, too. So I know what they’re feeling like. That’s why it’s, um it’s really important to like address is, uh a lot of times, you see, these students are comparing themselves to other people like they’re doing this and this and this I should be doing that, too, or just perfectionist themselves. And all of that can have, like, massive repercussions under mental health earlier, on which, and then end up having like, long term effects, which is why we’re here was mentors to guide them through that, to help him with that, make sure that that’s not the case. Yeah, Kristina can touch on this, but like, one thing I always stressed to my mansion, especially earlier in the first semester, is to not make the mistake of assuming that college cancer are gonna function like similar to what their high school classes did. Like what I mean by this is really is like one of the most prestigious universities, like public universities in the world. At the University of Texas, of course, where, like every student coming in was most probably at the top of their like high school class or be economists like they’re accustomed to seeing, though, like nothing but a is another classes, since they were like, 13 years old. Maybe,

[0:16:38 Speaker 0] uh, everyone right, like most people get into UT is by having good grades

[0:16:43 Speaker 1] in high school. So used to it. And some of these Some of these students are so gifted that, like they just cruise through their high school and and they just end up at the top of their class, ended by U T. And so what happens is that they come to you tea with the exact same expectation.

[0:16:56 Speaker 0] Yeah, it’s a tough It’s a tough thing to experience, right? Like if you’ve never had to study for a test before and you’re used to getting A’s, and then you study your butt off and you still don’t get the results that you want and it’s the first time you’ve ever experienced that, it’s it’s a struggle. Um, you know, I think that that’s something that as mentors and upperclassmen, you kind of experience yourself and you could be there to be like, Hey, look, I was where you were. I had the same thoughts, those same feelings. Look at me like you probably think I have my whole life together. I assure you that I don’t write like you can. Kind of, like, talk them down off of the quote unquote ledge of like, What am I doing here? What about you pick Isa? Who did you ask for help? How did you get help as a first year student? And who do you consider Mentor Now? I know. Believe fsp and pace our first your programs, but yeah, but with you trying, it applies to every grade it Z grade students who are struggling. And as when I came to U T off, as I mentioned earlier in high school, your teachers literally teach you everything and tell you what to do. If you’re struggling, they’ll come to you. They’ll help you out. Coming to a university. You’re all on your own. And when I was a first year student, I didn’t know anyone in Austin. Also, I’m first generation, so I didn’t know how to study for college classes. And compared to high school classes, I didn’t know who to ask for help. I didn’t know about any resource. Is I unfortunately, wasn’t put into FSP or was part of pace. So I had to struggle and I didn’t know I was on. I went to help for Advisors Advisors, my psych advisor. They just answer the questions I have. They’re not really there to guide me or health. Yeah, and advisers a little bit different than a mentor, right? Yeah, and that’s why I wanted to emphasize on the mentor program and the U turn department. You are not required to have a mentor, but I think it is really helpful because the advisers there like your coaches. But it’s helpful to have someone who is doing what you’re doing and went through it. You’re going through right now, so I think that is really important. And when I went to U turn, that’s how I found. All of my resource is that’s how I made a lot of my friends and for, as that goes, who’s my mentor now? I would say it’s my friend Taylor, who’s ahead of me. She’s also a psych major. She goes through a lot of the stuff I go through, so I all she’s always there. If I need help or have any questions. Also, this might sound a little weird, but also my mentees. They go through a lot of stuff, and I see them do a lot of things, and I learned a lot from them as well. So I think that’s really helpful to and I even though I’m their mentor, I learned a lot. E think that’s super important. You know, I think that a lot of people assume, you know, in a mentor mentee relationship that you know, it’s the mentor passing down wisdom and, like the mentee, is a sponge to, like, soak it up and learn from those experiences. But in my own experience as a mentor, I find that I learned Justus much from my mentees as they learn from me. What are some lessons that you all have kind of learned from some of your mentees? Or what have they have taught you about life for college, or even being a mentor? I think, um, even for my first year. So I’m very type A, and I need to get all of my work done to the absolute best it can possibly be, and not everybody’s like that. And it was hard E mark utilization. But I meant mentor and you see, like some mentees aren’t like that. And it you my own mind. I was like, Oh, they’re struggling like, What are they doing? Like or like, you need to pick it up. I didn’t like ever say that to them, but because I I knew in that protecting your E in the back of my head that not everybody was like you. And that’s totally fine, especially with Cove in. Now I see people react to things very differently. Some will need a mentor. Some people don’t need a mentor in case you are required to have a mentor. I know when you turn you said that they’re not, but you’ll reach out to people and they might not even answer you R E A. There’s varying levels of engagement with the mentor mentee relationship, right? E like we have a g p A requirement. If you want Thio, if you want to fully transitioned to u T. And for me it was like Okay, the G p. A is like a 3.0, depending on whatever, but I need 4.0, but other people don’t aren’t like that and They’re like, Oh, I like I’ll just get a 3.0 then But that’s fun. We still ended up in the same place. So that was kind of a weird things happened because I was like, what? Like Yeah, interesting. Yeah, like just because you’re extra doesn’t mean you’re doing it right. Just like the process of learning about how different people learn and how different people consume information that was also I used to be an FSP mentor when I was a sophomore in college, and that was a wild ride for me. My students were like, Yeah, I haven’t started studying for my exams That is in two weeks And I was like Well, why haven’t you done that yet? You’re obviously going to fail, But like that Z, that’s not true. It was just because I needed that extra time. They might not need that extra time, but that learning process of not everybody does the same thing, but as long as it works for them that it works, it’s It’s a little bit tricky sometimes because as a mentor, like you know, you want to guide them to the right resource is and the right way of doing things. But sometimes the right way is so dependent on the person that goes for all the mentees. If you’re listening to this and you have a mentor who really wants to help you out, it’s okay if their advice doesn’t particularly apply to you. Um, you don’t need to do everything the way that your mentor shows you the way that your classes or your seminar classes show. You do what works for you. It is a learning process. It took me years to learn how I work effectively. And it might be like that for you to thes air. Just tips. Take them with a grain of salt. Mhm,

[0:23:39 Speaker 1] Yeah, I think for me, of course, my mentees have taught me so much. Thio, I really didn’t expect, Like to learn as much I did as a mentor for my mentees, but I’m not ashamed allowed to to admit that I like, I probably have learned as much if not more. Uh, from momentous in the pilot

[0:23:57 Speaker 0] makes you a good mentor that you’re not afraid of e

[0:23:59 Speaker 1] appreciate that there are some things that I really did not feel like. I said, um, that I would learn as a mentor, But believe it or not, you learn so many things from every different Manti every man he’s so so different at these from from, uh, experience. Yeah, they taught me they taught me a lot about, like, had a handle like hard conversations also in, like, tackle specific problems more efficiently and yeah, they taught me the importance of establishing really a transparent relationship to and having effective communication and forcing that accountability within each other, not just with them, but with myself. Thio helping each other accountable is really important, I think, in the relationship with the mentor and the mentee, at least.

[0:24:37 Speaker 0] Yeah, I think kind of building off of that. Something I’ve learned is that people are totally fine if you don’t know something I before I mean like before my first year as a mentor, I was really scared that somebody like I was still like young. I had gotten accepted my question here, and I was like, Oh my God, what if I don’t know the answer? What, like they’re going to think I’m like, not fit for this? That’s probably my like imposter syndrome creeping in, but but you don’t have the entire Internet memorized, you know, like people are fine with that. And that was a good lesson. To learn early was that you don’t have to know the answers to everything they can, like, Wait a little bit for you to go and figure out the answer. Um, you know, people aren’t, like, vicious, like you might think. Mhm. That’s the thing is that I constantly want to stress to our students is that you don’t need to know the answer to everything. You just need to know where to go to find that answer. And that can be your mentor. It can be your advisor, Your professor. The syllabus read the syllabus. It can even be Google. But you need to, you know, use your resource is that’s why your mentors air here. That’s why thes success programs air here. It’s so that you know what the resource is our and what services are offered and what’s out there for you because you’re not expected to know everything. But we just want you to be exposed to where the answers could be. It’s like a mindset thing, right? Like you all talked a little bit about it already. You know, not feeling like you can ask for help or you don’t want to ask for help. Are asking for help is like a weakness. And, you know, the college version of that is like having conversations with your mentors and seeking out some of the campus resource is. But if you already, if you’re stuck in that mindset of like I’m not supposed to ask for help, then you’re never going to get plugged into some of these programs or have a mentor some of the resources that are available. What about you? Picky? So what of your mentees taught you over the over the time you served as a mentor? So as we discussed earlier, we as mentors, go with our mentees as well. And I have grown and learned a lot through my mentors as we I think Christina mentioned earlier. Different things work with different people. So the way I might study might not be the way that works for you are things like that. I have a lot of different little techniques from my mentees that they use and I’ve tried them myself, and they have, I’m sure vice versa and Another thing that I really admire about my mentees is that they’re always so positive. It’s really hard. I have one, um, bad grade or one bad thing happens to me. Everything else is going, you’re gonna end up under a bridge e just to see how they’re so positive and they just keep moving on forward. Obviously, that’s not every Manti, but I really admire that about them. They keep on going and they believe in themselves and they pushed through and stay motivated, which is something I struggled with. And throughout the years, I have gotten better at staying motivated and positive. One bad thing doesn’t mean everything else is gonna be bad. One bad grade is not gonna be a setback to your whole semester. You might still end up making a if you miss one assignment and forgot to turn it in. S o. I really admire that about them, and I really admire how they grow throughout the semester, and some of them struggle asking for help and then, by the end of the semester, there so comfortable with you and they’ll even reach out to you after they’re done with the program. I really admire that about them, too, because I know sometimes I’m really good at asking for health. But after a while I ask myself, Am I asking too much? So just that relation E. I do, and I really admire that. There always like asking for help. Yeah, I going off of what you said cookies about how they’re so positive and how sometimes it can feel like one bad thing happens and that’s it’s over for your college career. I saw this tweet a couple of days ago, and it was like College is really just about learning how to take Els and moving on with your life. Nothing is going thio end your college career like believing exactly like Take that l and move on. But if you sit on it and you let it fester and you lay in bed for weeks and weeks and weeks thinking about that one bad grade, you’re not going to recover from it. And it’s okay to, you know, be upset and to be sad about it. But at some point, you need to get back on top of your stuff and get back to work and try harder for the next time, but basically, yeah, except those cells and get on with your life. Everybody goes through some difficulty in college, everybody gets bad grades. Nobody is perfect. And, um, don’t think that other people are perfect or they’re doing everything correctly. It’s just a matter of how well do you recover from that? So then I kind of want to talk about Imposter syndrome, because that is something that has really come up a lot over the last semester or so. And even during this podcast, I’ve noticed that you all have said the word impossible syndrome a few times, too. So let’s just talk about that,

[0:30:30 Speaker 1] Yeah, I think that 1st, 1st of all, it’s really it’s more evident. You see passenger more now at least new students, especially because why? Obviously we’re in the middle of pandemic, right? So ah, lot of these students are back home. They’re not even at the university yet. I

[0:30:47 Speaker 0] don’t feel like

[0:30:48 Speaker 1] exactly they don’t feel like they’re a part of you t like or like, they get a bad grade that, like you know what? I don’t block. Um, there’s ways. There’s a reason why you at the University of Texas you’re investing in yourself, you’re investing and your education’s might as well make the most out of it. Like even if you have your like, take a rhetoric course, learn how to write. That is why we’re here just to like there’s so many ways to battle that in Pakistan German. It’s like, really, really important that we dio. But it all goes back to that reassurance, like I said, and making sure that they don’t not set up for disappointment because in high school, like they had everything in front of them and and it was, I mean, also, people come from different high schools, of course, and they’re not all the same level difficulties. So sometimes they think some people are more prepared than others.

[0:31:33 Speaker 0] Absolutely. We actually talked about that exact topic. Just a few episodes back. We were like your tuition money has already paid for all of these. Resource is So go get your money’s worth. Yeah, What about you, Maya? What do you think about E have so much like there’s so much that goes into imposter syndrome? It’s the worst way should we should. Let’s unpack this. It’s the worst. I mean, there’s there’s worse things, but it’s hard when you’re going through it. Not like I said before. I really struggled with being in pace and going to both campuses and people not understanding that. But with imposter syndrome you, you kind of don’t even realize that you’re going through it until you’re out of it. Uh, just don’t even know that imposter syndrome was a thing until this year. I think, um, as a junior and just like the just like knowing that Imposter syndrome is a thing and like hearing that there’s a word for that feeling. And as I said before, my role as a mentor like me, specifically compared to other mentors in Pace is students who are struggling with with pace and just having a hard freshman year are sent to me. And so I know firsthand that, like, I wasn’t the only one going through that. And I know because multiple students have been sent to me that it’s not just one person going through with it are going through it. Andi. I think another part of freshman year that that really makes this seem worse is social media like we’re in a generation where that’s like everything to us, but it really is just a facade and we feel a victim toe People posting on Lee the good parts of their life and their everything that they procrastinated an exam study. When I was a senior, I had posted that I finally got an internship offer and everyone was like, Oh, my God, you’re so amazing. And my my friends who were younger that I would mentor, they’d be like, Wow, how did you do that? You’re the smartest person in the world and I was like, I didn’t tell you that I got rejected from 67 other internships and ghost it from 40. So, like, nobody talks about the rejections. Nobody talks about the failing grades or all of that. People only really talk about, you know, all of the good things are happening. So of course you’re going to feel like everybody else around you is doing perfectly. And everybody else around you is so successful is because nobody talks about when they’re struggling. I think in pace we kind of encourage this and one of our seminars to kind of open up during our smaller groups and say like, this is what I was struggling with this week. I like just because I’m a mentor and I’m older than you doesn’t mean that I am not having a terrible time. Like and I was cried last night for like, three hours after he did bad on the test. But you didn’t see like you wouldn’t have seen that unless I told you about it. So it like, in order to combat imposter syndrome, we have to be more open, especially as mentors. You kind of have to set the scene for being vulnerable. And that is why I love college Pyramid Tor. So much because you all really pushed back on. That narrative of everybody is perfect. And everybody knows what they’re doing at all times of the day. Because you all have been through it. And you know that it wasn’t perfect and you struggled about it. And you are super duper vulnerable and transparent with it. And I think that your students appreciate that a lot. Thio. And if you are a first year student and you’re listening to this, I promise you please just reach out Thio an older student or a mentor or an adviser and talk about why it is that you feel like you don’t belong or why it is that you feel that you’re the only person who’s struggling. I promise you that is not the case at all. Yeah, someone has been in your shoes. Someone has faced struggle. And, you know, I think our mentors here can kind of tell you about how they benefited from that struggle and grew and learned and came out the other side. And now you can use that struggle is fuel for success in the future. Yeah, s Maya emphasized. I think, of course, our mentors And a lot of this about this is about academics. But our lifestyle, the things that happened outside of our classes outside of school affect us. Um ah, lot of my mentees I myself struggle with. I have really high expectations for myself. So I think most U T students dio they’re so small. But if you have one bed grade is not gonna mean that your whole semester’s over. A lot of my students table get into a class and not perform that when the first exam and they will think that Oh, I just need to drop this class. I don’t think I can do it. And I’m like, No, you’re gonna learn from this. You don’t? You didn’t know the structure off the exam. You didn’t know how to study for this. If you need help, go to the tea is go to the professor, seek help you. You’re gonna do it. Don’t think that you’re not good enough. We all are not born knowing every like everything that there is. We learned through our failures, we experiment everything and learned through that. So I think part of growth and learning is to fail. Um, I’ve learned most of if I fail at something, and I learned how Teoh get better at it. I’m going to remember that instead of something that I’m automatically good up for sure. I would argue that it’s no longer a failure, right, Because it’s become a learning experience and not a failure. You’re struggling is more than you’re struggling. You’re just learning and growing. Yeah, and I think it’s really important to just kind of think about that and say that if I don’t know this, I’m gonna learn this. If I’m not the best at it, I’m gonna get the best like learn and be the best. Learn how to be the best at it. So I think that’s ah huge thing I have learned myself this year and I’ve struggled a lot with. So I think it’s really important to always try and look at things very positively and believe in yourself. And everyone around us is not perfect. Where humans were not perfect, the process is to learn and keep on going. Um, yeah,

[0:38:12 Speaker 1] something that I’m stressing right now, actually, with the program I’ve talked to, a message right now is how the second your second semester eyes always gonna be much better for semester. Why is that? It’s like you’re drastically better their first, obviously your very first semester at UT. That’s a good learning experience. You really adapting? You’re getting to know how everything works, the ins and outs of of how each cast works, what to expect for each examine what not I use encouraging. You just push forward, get through the first set of finals like your first semester. Once you finish for a semester, you’re good. Like after that second semester, Unless you’re taking like but okay, em And like engineering class or something like that, taking like the the hardest test ever in second semester. It’s a transition. WITSEC ideally like you difficulty in class whites. And if it was a little bit harder, you’re going to see the you’re gonna see how you’re improving, using improving how much little, how much easier it is, then in the very beginning. For most people, at least, I think this can only be true if you obviously learn how toe learn from your mistakes. If you made a lot of mistakes in your first semester knowing how to cope with that failure because a lot of like I said, a lot of these students don’t often like they’re not really used to coping with the figures. And just acknowledging that that you’re struggling is the first step, obviously, and then just how to go about it, like whether it’s a routine like fixing routine. You know what? It’s just sleeping schedule eating, because you all of that goes into like how you feel mentally. And, uh, that’s why all of that, like your whole schedule, your whole routine already gets like it’s more stable during your second semester right in your face because you first met you for figuring everything out. Of course, your second semester You kind of grow like you kind of rolling through it. Eso is a huge learning experience that that you experience through. So if any first year students like listening to this are are like, stressed about finals right now in your very first semester. Like pushed to that once you get past that and you’re finally set free like you. That’s the way I always saw it. And thats way like I have my man TC and it’s worked well for them and then, like throughout their second semester that they have more confidence, especially even if they didn’t do well. The first message. They have confidence to know that they could only be better because they already know they had an advantage now that that they have, ah, semester of experience in there. So,

[0:40:27 Speaker 0] yeah, absolutely. I really agree with that. Like a lot of times we assumed that college classes the material is just so hard and that that is why students are struggling. It’s because what they’re learning, it’s just so difficult. But that’s not necessarily true, because you have always been learning hard material like the things that you learned in school have always been difficult. Hello? Has anybody ever taken AP Economics in high school? That was terrible. That was so hard. But the difference between how well you did in high school versus how well you’ll do in college is just learning to adapt the K to 12 education system. You’ve been doing the same thing since you were five years old. You know, you learn that way. You know, this is how it works for this specific class. This is how all of your science teachers teach this how all of your English teachers teach and then college completely flips out around, and you have thio discover new routines, discover new learning systems and, like that takes a lot of work. So it’s not that the material is so much more difficult. It’s just that your relearning how to learn. If you listen to the first episode, Jr constantly said, None of you have ever college before. You don’t know how to college. That is why it is so difficult. And so it was ill is right that the second semester is so much easier purely because you have learned how to college. You know what your strengths are. You know what your weaknesses are? You know how you study to a certain extent and you know how to learn from your mistakes and make adapt ations to specific classes and really learn how to study and how to write and how to use resource is and how to ask for help. That is the difference in being a good college student. Um, you could know all the oak em in the world, but if you don’t know how to learn from your mistakes, college is going to be a bad time. So, um yeah, your second semester will be better. Please don’t freak out. Ozil’s right. Get through that first round of finals your freshman year. Fall semester. It does get easier and you do get used to it. You do learn from this process on the one thing that’s clear and oozing out of all three of you is like this concept of care for your fellow students, right? Like it doesn’t really impact you individually, right? Like, yes, this is a job and you get paid. But if your mentees like don’t succeed, like or if they do. It’s like you get paid better or worse. You obviously come to this work with big hearts, big, open hearts. And you know, you you want to make this institution a better place for students that that came after you. So I can’t thank you enough for doing this work. I wish we could pay you more for this work. Uh, but it’s so, so valuable and so many students wouldn’t realize the success that they have without these mentorship programs and students like you being willing to help out other students, uh, through their struggles, toe get on a path to succeeding. Another thing I wanted Thio add on is that it will get better for a lot of you first years listening to this. But you’re going to continue to struggle even if you learn how to adult. Very well. I’m a senior myself and I’ve written so many research papers, but one of my classes this semester feels really unorganized, and I feel like I didn’t know what to do. But what did I do? I went and met up with my T A and my professor three separate times and figured out exactly what I needed to do. And you guys, I was so stressed about this I completely for not how to write a research paper because I was calling myself Oh, I can’t do this. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m gonna fail at this. But after talking to myself, which is a great technique, if you want Thio myself a pep talk and talking to my professors and t A s, um, I wrote a paper, went to office offers again, and I thought I was gonna bomb this paper, but I ended up almost getting ah 100 on it. So I think I got 60. Which Waas made me so happy. But if I hadn’t decided to go get some help from my professor and TS, I’m sure I would have done worse. So we’re gonna learn to adopt what? Make sure that you use these skills. You ask for help when you need to, instead of just trying to figure it out yourself. It’s never that to just go on there and ask for help. We’ve all been through it and we will continue to. This is why it’s gonna happen. We’re gonna continue to struggle. But the thing is that we need to learn and grow from.

[0:45:09 Speaker 1] I think the hardest part is to actually take the initiative. Like I’m sure you all understand that looking for help? Well, obviously you’ll do better looking for help, and I think the hardest part even, like, just if you have to do it. So you have an essay due the next day at midnight. Whatever. Or whatever it may be like, The hardest part is to actually like, set your mind to it and get started. Once you get started, you you get the ball rolling. You’re going, You’re going. That’s me with this. He said I like I said, I’m not the best fighter. So that’s the hardest part for me is like getting started. Like, where do I start? What am I gonna talk about doing like, 10 different tabs open? What am I gonna write about once I actually start? That’s like it takes me So it takes me just as much to start and it takes me to finish it. Usually like that just goes shows like everything else. Like whether, like if you’re struggling, we did. But I don’t exam and you look into your next exams in your attacking. You thinking like, how can I do better? This is and or you just wanna go to office hours or you thought about going to office or you people are telling you, like goto officers, If your mentors telling you do this to that like and you understand and just e no, you understand it but the hard parts to actually go out and do it. This is a big thing that I that I talk about The big thing with this is, uh, with organizations like getting involved in campus. Like if you just scrutinize your your academics the whole way, like it’s not how college is gonna work. You have to balance your academics with whether this stuff, like at the end of the day, like whenever you go into the workforce like it’s not just gonna be your g p a under. It’s gonna be like

[0:46:37 Speaker 0] a someone who just got a full time job after graduation. No one has ever asked me for my g p. A. No one has ever asked me for my transcript. No one has ever asked me for my diploma. Take that how you will eso we could have looked it up, eh?

[0:46:54 Speaker 1] So I mean, the whole point here is like God get involved, like, not only does this help you like with your resume and stuff like it actually helps you for what it’s for, like it’s there to whether depending on what you’re interested in, like we did it, we did, Ah, presentation on, like joining different or getting involved on campus just like over 1000 or eggs like you t you can join so many things even if you’re not on campus like there’s so many ways you can still get involved. And I think it’s really important that like you actually go out like, take a break from like just focusing on what your grades and checking canvas and checking like, Oh, what? Just get involved like this. Why you’re U T. This is the point of going to college. Is is to to get to college experience, and that includes, like getting involved anywhere you can. It actually goes a long way, and not only in your resume, just for yourself, like for a mentor how to be able to bed. And so, like I said, it’s gonna be really important. So if you’re not already involved, if you say first Messer and you’re not on campus yet and you’re just like you know what or a lot of times is very, um, it’s very, very common. A lot of people like you know what I’ll join next master, like it’s already late. Like I went thio At least go to a general meeting foreign or something and see what it’s about. If you if you’re not really too sure you should join or not before you pay your membership. Of course, like I just don’t know if you wanna add on toe.

[0:48:08 Speaker 0] Yeah, I love how Paquita used a personal example of kind of having a struggle in overcoming it. I talked about how my freshman year was terrible for me, but I think something really important if you do end up having a hard time, is to either while you’re in it, like preferably or like me, where it takes you the whole time you get out of it and then you are able to change your perspective on your struggle. I can help you so much. Like I I had a terrible paste experience, but now I became a mentor to kind of help other people not have that. And because of, like, I get so much satisfaction about from helping a student like going through the same thing that I did that now. So when I was a kid, I also had trouble. When I was going through physical therapy for a C. L surgery. I had the worst time and I was so sad. And it was so hard for me because I was young and I like, wasn’t willing to put the work into it. And it was just like a horrible, horrible time my life And then that, like, because of the experience I’ve had as a paste mentor, this is like only confirmed my decision to become a physical therapist because I want to become a PT for the same reason I wanted to become a basement or, um, to help people who had a bad time going through that. So, like, I wonder now, had I not gone through pace like where? What would I be? I don’t know. E don’t know what career path I would want and I don’t know if I would feel confident and I don’t know if it would be meaningful for me. And so, like, Pace has helped me and kind of a unique way with that, because I was I was able to get a job out of it. Um, but now, now I kind of see use it for my future and see, like how that struggle, um, was for the better. I think I’m not usually one who you know, the quote that’s like everything happens for a reason. I never used to think that, but just because, like, I was like the type of person Thio where whenever something bad it would happen if you like. Oh, my my life Like it’s the worst. Like this Worst E. But yeah, it does take you to get out of it, kind of succeed to see that that maybe things do happen for a reason. And it can be for for the better. While you all clearly love the programs that you’re affiliated with. You love working with students. You love being mentors, and it shows. Luckily, none of you do have thio live through what life would be like without these programs because you found them or they found you and you’ve been able to kind of give back what you’ve received from them. And you all do it every week with grace and with good attitudes. And we’re just We’re so lucky tohave awesome mentors this part of our programs Eso I just want to thank you all so much for not only the work that you do, but of course, being here today and spending another hour of your lives helping other students, not yourself. It says a lot about your people that you are a college of liberal arts is very, very lucky to have you three as mentors. I agree. I agree. Thank you all so much. We really appreciate you all being with us today. Yeah,

[0:51:32 Speaker 1] and then I was gonna say a quick shot If I can follow and follow at u t underscore fsp if you are. If you all want to just get to know that the foundation scholars program a little bit better

[0:51:44 Speaker 0] talking to student mentors, nothing warms the hearts like getting ready for the holiday season like you just like it really is. My heart feels 33 sizes bigger than it did when we started the interview today. they make me so happy. I really dio believe that we are so lucky to have such robust student mentor programs in our college. I don’t think that our students experience in college would be the same without the’s mentors to help them. And I know I’ve said this a lot over the last few episodes, especially with Dr Reddick, But I really do appreciate pure mentorship so much that relationship with other students. I think that it’s one of the most important relationships you could have in college, and these mentors really, really proved that point for me. For me, it’s It’s the learning, right? Like Okay, I’m the old guy in the room or whatever and you know, these air college students and like I still learn from the things that they say, you know, like I was writing my notes and like the same way that they were like, you know, it’s the same things you hear from the mentors over and over again. But just because you hear it a bunch of times and you might hear something 20 times and then like it’s that 21st time where it really like hits you over the head and you’re like, Oh yeah, and you connect with it on like one of the things that they talked about was like that. There isn’t a roadmap for success in college, like everybody is different, like yes, there. There’s advice and there things that we suggest you do. But there is no exact formula for how to get from acceptance to graduation. That will be perfect no matter what. Like you need to be adaptable, you’ll be ready for change and doing things different. Learning how to ask for help. Uh, there’s there’s a lot of ways to get from the first day of school thio graduation. Yeah, for sure. And I think that they really brought up a good point. You know, it’s not about having all of the right answers. It’s about using your resource is and Europe. Your mentors are a resource. They’re the most accessible resource that you probably have. You know, you can’t be texting your professor at 11 pm but you could probably Yeah, you could probably text your mentor at 11 pm but the most likely respond in in a way that is much more receptive. Thio, You know you. Then someone who is much older and has been in a full time job for longer than you’ve been alive. And so that’s what happened. Your mentors is so important. Yeah, yeah, something about, like, the consistency of having ah, peer mentor, right. And like that being more important than the knowledge. You know, somebody I think it was my I was talking about. Or maybe was this year, like, I may not have the answer, but I could find the answer. I’ll find the answer. I’ll get it for you. And so, you know, just the you don’t have to have all the answers. But you do have to, like, have the relationship. And you do have to have this mindset that asking for help is okay, or, you know, um, changing the way that you think about struggling like instead of it being a negative thing, like, struggled to me, represents strength. One of my favorite professors on campus, uh, Mary Steinhardt she likes to talk about she’s a kinesiology professor, and she talks about how you know when you’re lifting weights, you aren’t getting stronger until that very last rep, when you could just barely barely get the bar up. That’s when you’re actually getting stronger. And, um, that just is a good reminder that struggle equal strength, right? If you’re struggling, that means you’re getting stronger. Yes, yes. And also, something I recently learned is that doctors they also google things on the job. You know, like the doctor has to google symptoms has to google various treatments, various prescriptions, they don’t know everything. They just know how to apply their knowledge to how toe look for an answer. And that is what you should be doing. You’re not expected to know how to do absolutely everything, but you are expected toe learn how to reach for help. And I think that was another thing I noticed Is that freshman students? You tell them all the time You’re like, hey, go to the university writing center. If you’re having trouble with your essay and they’re like no, and then they’re like, I’m struggling with chemistry and then you say, OK, go to the same learning center there like, nope, Everybody would think I’m stupid, But the mentors we talked to today they were all upperclassmen. They were juniors and seniors, and every single one of them was like I constantly reach out for help. Liquisa is a senior said that she had to go to her professor and ta in the same class three separate times during the semester on And I think that is something that you really do learn over the years, the difference between a first year student and a third or fourth year student is there confidence and capability of asking for help? There’s no longer any shame. It just means you’re you’re wanting to know more and you’re willing to put in the work to know more. And I think that it says a lot about how students develop over the course of the years that there at college. Sure, that’s my favorite thing about working with college students is seeing the growth from freshman year Thio senior year and saw the life lessons both inside the classroom and outside the classroom that they’ve learned. And, you know, one of the lessons my assured with us is, you know, she worked really, really hard to get a 4.0 during her pace here, and other students maybe didn’t work as hard, got a 3.0, and they both ended up in the same place, right? So I think the older you get or the longer you’re in college, you start to get a better feel for just how hard you need to press down on the gas pedal and even like when you can let up on the gas pedal. Sometimes that’s an okay thing to do all good things in moderation, right? Absolutely. I One funny tidbit is my junior year during south by Southwest. This was when mega the stallion was blowing up and stories of Christina College become one of my favorite parts of, uh, no, my friends and I, we got invites to go to Meghan the Stallions Haughty party. But I didn’t go because I had an Arabic exam. And so I was like, No, I have to study for this Arabic exam, so I’m not gonna go. But then they went, and later that night I saw my friends on Meghan the stallion’s instagram story. And now, two years later, I don’t even remember what was on that example. But you remember you miss that party. Exactly. And you know what? We’re all doing perfectly fine academically. They went to that party. They met Megan the stallion. And did they fail any exams? No. Did it matter? No. You don’t need to be pushing yourself so hard that all college becomes about is your grades. You know, there are so many other things to care about. The mentors did a really good job of talking about this. Like what student organizations are you in? Like, Who are you talking, Thio? What re sources are you using? Are you doing research? Are you building a relationship with your professors or a t A? There’s so much more than your grades, right? Balance. Balance is the key. Yep. Well, I think that’s about all the time we have for today. Thanks, everybody, for listening. As always, we really appreciate the time that you spend with us. And hopefully you get some knowledge and some truth bombs out of it. And it helps make college a little less ambiguous. Well, I guess that’s it for today. I’m Phil Butler, and I’m Christina Buoy. And until next time, we hope that all of your endeavors are a success. Yeah