Mentor Guide

Business School
Peer Mentoring Program
Semester 1, 2019

Contact
Dan Smith
Student Experience Programs Coordinator
Careers and Employability Office, University of Sydney Business School
Basement, Abercrombie Building (H70)
02 9036 6139
business.mentoring@sydney.edu.au
 Business School Peer Mentoring Program - Mentor Guide

About the Peer Mentoring Program

The Business School Peer Mentoring Program aims to enhance new students’ sense of belonging
to a learning community. The program is designed to assist new students to build social and
academic networks so that they settle more quickly into life as a student in the Business School
and therefore have a more successful, productive and positive personal and academic
experience.

This is achieved by small groups of new students meeting and undertaking a range of activities
over three sessions in first semester under the support and direction of a mentor. As a mentor,
you will meet your mentees on Welcome Day, and will need to keep in touch with them over
the first eight weeks of the semester (from Welcome Week until the end of Week 7). After
meeting at Welcome Day, you should meet with your group at least two more times (at
minimum). We’ll talk about your meetings at training.

The program model is explained below.

Establish group (Welcome Week)

▪ Answer immediate questions that they have
▪ Establish who your mentees are and what their current situation is:
▪ Who is new to Sydney? What are they studying? What are they interested in?
▪ What factors will affect how the group will operate?
▪ Timetables, extracurricular activities, work/care commitments
▪ How can you best communicate?
▪ Email, SMS, Facebook
▪ Work out the best meeting times
Facilitate settling in (Weeks 1 and 2)
▪ What do your mentees already know about university study?
▪ What do your group members need to know?
▪ Lectures, tutorials, services, facilities, resources, LMS, unit outlines,
▪ Offer details about learning support
▪ Library, PASS, Maths in Business
Guide the planning process (Weeks 3 and 4)
▪ Make sure mentees have logged into LMS and their student email
▪ Details of social events
▪ Encourage them to keep on top of things (readings, etc)
▪ Academic honesty module, consent module

Support (Weeks 5 – 8)
▪ How are your mentees going?
▪ What assignments are coming up? – Offer encouragement
▪ Communicate regularly
▪ Be a good listener
▪ Encourage mentees to help each other and refer as necessary
Disengage (Week 8)
▪ Redefine the relationship

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What is a mentor?
Mentoring is very different to being a friend or being a counsellor. The mentoring relationship
is designed to primarily benefit the first year students in the program; mentors will be there to
answer questions, show them around and refer them on to services in the Business School or the
University that might help them in their journey through their first semester. By keeping in touch
with your group in the first half of semester you’ll be giving them a lot of useful information
and helping them to help themselves. You are not expected to provide counselling for serious
personal issues, nor are you expected to be available 24/7 for your mentees.

We’ll talk about boundary setting at training.

The mentor will gain lifelong skills including: great leadership and relationship building skills;
cultural competence; an important understanding of the intrinsic rewards in giving back to new
students. By keeping in touch with your group in the first half of semester you’ll be giving them
a lot of useful information and helping them to help themselves.

Mentor commitment
All mentors must commit to the following:
• Attend face-to-face training
• Complete an online training module on Canvas (30 minutes – 1 hour)
• Participate at Welcome Day
• Meet with your groups at least two more times before the end of week 4, and submit
reports to the Coordinator after each meeting
• Send weekly emails to your group
• Communicate regularly with the Coordinator as needed

Activity Date Complete

23 November (PG)
Mentor training – session 1
26 November (UG)
Online quiz by 4 February
14 February (UG)
Mentor training – session 2
15 February (PG)
19 February (UG)
Welcome Day (Meeting 1)
20 February (PG)
Meeting report 1 by 21 February
Email 1 (Week 1) 24 February
Email 2 (Week 2) 3 March
Meeting 2 (Weeks 1/2) by 8 March
Meeting report 2 by 8 March
Email 3 (Week 3) 10 March
Email 4 (Week 4) 17 March
Meeting 3 (Weeks 3/4) by 22 March
Meeting report 3 by 22 March
Email 5 (Week 5) 24 March
Email 6 (Week 6) 31 March
Email 7 (Week 7) 7 April
Email 8 (Week 8) 14 April
Program ends 18 April

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Responsibilities of a mentor
Participate at Welcome Day
This is an essential event in the program, in which mentors and mentees meet for the first time.
They attend a welcome by the Dean and spend time together in a small group to get to know
each other and ask questions. Over lunch, groups attend the Student Information Expo where
first years can join societies, learn about services, and receive enrolment and academic advice.
You must inform the Coordinator as soon as possible if you are unable to attend.

Meet with your group at least two more times throughout semester
Mentors are provided with a document with suggestions for meeting topics which relate to the
student experience, with a particular focus on the first eight weeks of semester. These are
intended only as a suggestion or guideline. If using these templates, mentors should also
include their own suggestions and experiences as part of the session. Often, mentors will find
that mentees have topics that they want to discuss too, so you can work together as a group to
come up with an agenda for your meetings. Mentors can also decide to develop their own
topics and materials for mentoring meetings. Mentors are encouraged to develop meeting
material and/ or agendas collaboratively, and to share their insights with other mentors.

Setting a time to meet with your group can be challenging given everyone’s different
timetables and work commitments. Mentors should work with their group members to try to find
a common time, rather than dictating a time to the group. The scheduling app Doodle
(www.doodle.com) is a useful tool for this.

Reporting back to the coordinator

After each meeting, mentors report back to the coordinator using an online form. The report
provides details of the group, the meeting topics of discussion, the challenges and outcomes.
The reason for these reports is to allow the coordinator to track the challenges faced by
commencing students across all groups and if a pattern emerges, they can be escalated to
senior staff in the Business School. Second, the feedback provides useful intervention points to
create a smoother transition to university life. Finally, it also allows the coordinator to track the
progress of individual mentors, which can then be used when writing reference letters at the
end of the program.

UG Form: https://forms-business.sydney.edu.au/mentoring/undergraduate-mentor-report
PG Form: https://forms-business.sydney.edu.au/mentoring/postgraduate-mentor-report

Weekly emails
Weekly draft emails will be sent to mentors by Friday the week before it should be sent.
Mentors need to modify the email to include their group members’ details and their own name.
There are also options to complete further modifications and add information about meetings
if one is to be scheduled that week.

Mentors should then send the weekly email by the following Sunday. For example, the Week 1
email will be distributed to mentors in Welcome Week, and it should be sent by Sunday night
to mentees. Mentors should copy the coordinator by CC’ing
business.mentoring@sydney.edu.au

Communication with the coordinator

Mentors are expected to stay in contact with the coordinator, particularly when they have
issues or concerns. The role of the coordinator is to support the mentors, and be available to
the mentors.

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Helping someone help themselves

“So what you’re

Hear saying is you are
feeling … Ask What have they
tried so far?
because of …”

Get them to list They can then

all the possible How do they decide which
List solutions before
you offer any
Explore feel about each
option?
Decide option works
options best for them

1. Use empathic listening as your first response and summarise the problem back to the
student to check you are both seeing the problem in the same way.
2. Check out what they have tried so far.
3. Check what they think their options are and how motivated they are to act on them.
Start by saying “before I provide my thoughts on this, what have you tried or thought
of trying?” List these down on a piece of paper if there are a lot of options, and don’t
forget to include the option of doing nothing.
4. Ask how they feel about each option – are any particularly difficult, expensive, or
undesirable for another reason?
5. See if they are able to decide on a course of action that is best for them, having listed
the options.

Think less about providing advice, and more about providing options. Some ways to phrase
this might be: “students will approach this in a couple of ways. Some will… (option a) and
others will … (option b). They both have their benefits and disadvantages. What will be the
best fit for you?”

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Referral and contacts

CAPS
Wants to speak to someone
Lifeline
Emotional distress
Consult coordinator
Doesn't want to speak to counsellor
Mental Health Access Line
Financial Assistance Office
Money-related
SRC / SUPRA
Accommodation Services
Accommodation-related
Life problem SRC / SUPRA
Legal issue SRC / SUPRA
University Health Service
Health issue
Disability Services
Understanding the assignment Consult tutor/lecturer
Learning Centre
Maths Learning Centre
Academic issues Skills help (writing, referencing)
PASS
Library skills online
Show cause / plagiarism problems SRC / SUPRA
Course structure Handbook
Student Centre
Enrolment issue Using Sydney Student
1800 SYD UNI
Visa questions Compliance team

University contacts
Questions: 1800 SYD UNI (1800 793 864)
• enrolment, fees, cards
• special consideration
• study abroad and exchange
• placement and internships
• general course/admin enquiries.
Concerns: 1800 SYD HLP (1800 793 457)
• request security assistance
• make a complaint or report an incident
• book an on-campus counselling
appointment
• access 24/7 support from NSW Rape
Crisis Centre.

Current students website: https://sydney.edu.au/students/

CAPS: https://sydney.edu.au/students/counselling-and-mental-health-support.html
Financial Assistance Office: https://sydney.edu.au/students/financial-support.html
Accommodation Service: https://sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation.html
University Health Service: http://sydney.edu.au/health-service/services/index.php
Disability Services: https://sydney.edu.au/students/disability-support.html
Learning Centre: http://sydney.edu.au/stuserv/learning_centre/
Maths Learning Centre: http://sydney.edu.au/stuserv/maths_learning_centre/
PASS: https://sydney.edu.au/students/pass.html
Library Skills: https://library.sydney.edu.au/help/online-training/
Handbook (UG): http://sydney.edu.au/handbooks/business_school/
Handbook (PG): http://sydney.edu.au/handbooks/business_school_PG/
Compliance Team: https://sydney.edu.au/students/support-for-international-students.html

External contacts
Students’ Representative Council (SRC): http://srcusyd.net.au/
Sydney Uni Postgraduate Representative Association (SUPRA): http://www.supra.net.au/
Mental Health Access Line: 1800 011 511
Lifeline: 13 11 14