Getting to Work

It's Friday morning and I couldn't sleep past six. So I'm trying to write a bit before Ferguson wakes up. We'll see how far I get.

This marks the end of my third week at PSU. It finally feels like I'm settled in and starting to focus on the work to be done. I've had to spend a lot of the last three weeks just figuring out the logistics of life, transportation, class registration, etc. It felt like a watershed moment to have my first in-depth meeting with Tom yesterday, where we lined out some of the research projects that I will be working on under his guidance.

My drama over dropping the class seems to be coming to a close as well. I submitted the paperwork yesterday to drop the class and petition for a full refund of my tuition. I must say I was a bit upset on Tuesday when I found out that dropping a class this week means I would only be subject to a refund of forty percent of my tuition. But luckily there is a process to petition for a full refund for extenuating circumstances. And thankfully the professor helped me fill out the required forms. I am hopeful for a full refund. I also missed the deadline to return my textbook. Hopefully, the bookstore will accept my request, as well, and refund me the $140 I paid for the text that was required for the class.

I've also been processing what happened with the class more and am starting to come to a resolution. In the end, I think the professor's reaction says more about the professor than it does about me. I may have blundered a bit, but I attempted to rectify my actions. Instead of giving me some guidance and allowing me a chance to succeed in the class, the professor chose instead to eject me. This may have been done out of concern for the rest of the class. And maybe that's the fair thing. But in the end, I think I should have been given more of a shot. I think I could have learned a lot and added to the classroom discussion.

It's also been interesting to think about my reaction to the whole thing. It finally dawned on me that just because someone's a teacher in an academic setting doesn't mean that I should place so much of my self-worth in their hands. I keep thinking about the refrain of one of Don Juan, the Indian, one Johnny Vidacovich's songs:

...
Careful who you idolize
Caution when you pick a guru
Attention, look inside for the true you
...

To that point, the longer I am here the luckier I feel to have Tom Keller as my mentor. He has been incredibly supportive, helpful, and patient with me as I've undertaken this adventure. He's done so much to make this experience possible for me. And now that I'm here, he's done whatever he can to guide me and help me on my way. To top it off, he's a master in his field. January is National Mentoring Month and is a good time to take stock of all the mentors in our lives. I was glad to have a chance to thank Tom yesterday on "Thank Your Mentor Day." Making this transition without Tom's assistance is pretty much unthinkable. Just thinking about where I would be without his support and guidance here at PSU reminds me how important mentors are in my life and in all of our lives.

For our reading group today, we read two pieces about the qualities of mentors and mentoring relationships. The first is one that I've wanted to read for a while, by Morrow and Styles. It is one of four studies undertaken by Public/Private Ventures in the mid-1990's to understand the field of youth mentoring. In their piece, titled "Building Relationships with Youth in Program Settings," Morrow and Styles described their qualitative study of 82 mentoring relationships across eight Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies.

They found that the approach of the volunteers made a big impact on the longevity of the matches and the frequency of match meetings. Through their interviews, they were able to classify volunteers as either developmental or prescriptive. The developmental volunteers focused more on building the relationship with the youth while the prescriptive volunteers focused on "fixing" the youth. Understandably, the developmental volunteers were the ones better able to keep a mentoring relationship alive for an extended period of time.

It was great to finally read the piece. I had heard about these two typologies of mentoring relationships for years, so it was nice to finally go to the source and understand them more fully. One of the great things about the report is the inclusion of so many quotes from volunteers and children. As I read the different voices, I could think of so many similar statements from matches that I have gotten to know in Alaska.

The study also opens a lot of questions about what it takes to put together a successful mentoring relationship. Certainly it's important to take a developmental approach and center the match on the needs of the youth. But how much structure should the mentor provide? How does the mentor grapple with their increased level of power in the relationshi? Unlike a peer, the mentor knows more and has more control over the relationship than the mentee. So how does the mentor focus the relationship on having fun and building the relationship around the needs of the youth while also providing some of the knowledge and wisdom that comes with greater life experience?

We read another study for this week which I continue to grapple with: "An Exploratory Study of Youth Mentoring in an Urban Context: Adolescents’ Perceptions of Relationship Styles" by Langhout, Rhodes, and Osborne. I read this paper in December for a discussion of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada's Research in Trends Committee, of which I am also a member. I am still having a hard time coming to terms with the findings from this study (especially the finding that relationships characterized by unconditional support had a negative effect on youth) and I'm hoping today's discussion will provide greater insight for me.

I'm really enjoying having the time to read so many youth mentoring research papers right now. After meeting with Tom yesterday, I'm understanding how important it is for me to get immersed in the literature. Hopefully, I'll be working on two projects with him - one to look at data from a school-based mentoring program study he completed and another to look at data gathered from participants in the Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring. In the school-based study, we want to look at the characteristics of the Bigs and Littles and see what effect these had on the mentoring relationship. In looking at the Institute data, we want to see how participants went back to their organizations and were or were not able to bring research to bear in their practice setting.

To prepare for helping on these projects, I need to get grounded in the literature. So I will be reading all I can about these topics. I also am eager to get immersed in the data from the different projects. It feels great to start diving in!

I'm also excited today to be reconnecting with some peers from the mentoring field, having my second fencing class, and meeting a relocated Juneau friend for lunch today at Clyde Common. It seems to be popular with the local foodie crowd here. Maybe I will post my review at a later date.

Until later.