The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Tampa chapter.
The summer before my freshman year, I applied for this pre-orientation program, which was originally called ELITE, which stood for Educating Leaders in Today’s Environment. I had decided I wanted to get involved before school started because I did not really know anyone going into college. As a mentee, I really enjoyed the experience because, while some parts were slower than others, I had fun with the other mentees and some of the mentors. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to apply to be a mentor for the program.
Training to be a mentor for the 2022 year was such a fun time. All of us as mentors got along really well, and our activities were fun, although the actual program had many hiccups. This was technically a transition year as we had completely rebranded from what used to be ELITE. I won’t go into too much detail, but it was kinda a mess on both sides, from mentees and mentors. Although, this made us determined to have a better time next year.
The professional coordinator and student coordinator worked from late 2022 up until the last few weeks before the program started to make it better than the year before. Their effort paid off. DiscoverUT 2023 was amazing; there were so many fun aspects, and the program flourished. Everyone loved it, and so many mentees wanted to come back to be mentors again next year, which is amazing. But isn’t that a part of any program: trial and error till it works? It doesn’t always work out, but that doesn’t mean you stop trying.
Being a mentor is helping these students adjust to college, and that isn’t always easy in my experience. It’s sticking through the bad and the ugly to see the other side. It’s talking about important topics or where the best food on campus is. Being a mentor has so many different aspects combined into one, and sticking through it, in my opinion, is a great idea and a wonderful experience.