Introduction

Mentoring is a time-proven strategy that can help young people of all circumstances achieve

their potential. Mentors are caring individuals who, along with parents or guardians, provide

young people with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement and constructive example. But

mentoring is not a one size fits all proposition. Every young person who would benefit from a

mentoring relationship has individual needs. Effective mentoring programs offer enough

flexibility to help meet each mentee’s personal needs, yet allow mentoring relationships to

flourish within a safe structure.

Mentoring is widely recognized as contributing to strong and healthy communities. Mentoring

helps to develop stronger links for students in career and employment programs. Mentoring helps

to solve a lot of problems for junior students because there are lots of grievances which must be

immediately acted upon. The students face a lot of difficulties stress and confusion which can be

solved by properly listening to them and helping them.

In this community development project, we tried our best by giving our precious time in classes

mentoring the junior students. We had great interactions with junior students as we could

understand and relate to their problems very easily as we have recent and seen from that stage. A

well-structured supervisor mentorship program has ability to support students improve their

social, emotional and academic skills and mindset.

Because relationships and a sense of bonding occur over time between mentors and mentees, the

duration and consistency of each mentoring relationship is very important. At a minimum,

mentors and mentees should meet regularly at least four hours per month for at least a year.

There are exceptions, such as school-based mentoring, which coincide with the school year, and

other types of special mentoring initiatives. In such special circumstances, mentees need to know

from the outset how long they can expect the relationship to last, so they can adjust their

expectations accordingly.

A mentor is a knowledgeable and experienced guide who teaches (and learns) through a

commitment to the mutual growth of both mentee and mentor. A caring, thoughtful, and humane

facilitator who provides access to people, places, experiences, and resources outside the mentee’s

routine environment. A role model who exemplifies in word and deed what it means to be an

ethical, responsible, and compassionate human being. A trusted ally, or advocate, who works

with (not for) the mentee and on behalf of the mentee’s best interests and goals.

Objectives

1. Increase a mentees awareness of educational, cultural, recreational and career opportunities.

2. Focus on helping youth accept their responsibilities and realize their potential.

3. To help the juniors to develop their strengths and potential and identify their changing needs,

values, aspirations, and what’s most important to them.

METHODOLOGY

Methodology for development mentoring is generally divided into three major divisions.

● Mentoring design.
 ● Mentoring implementation.

● Mentoring evaluation.

Designing phase

Designing phase is the very beginning action to conduct any research or project.

In development mentoring, designing phase consists of few steps

1.Establish outcomes/goals- People conduct research, projects in search of an answer or

outcome. Establishing or acknowledging your goals, outcomes and expectations help you to

move in a focused path to reach your destination.

2.Define roles - The roles, duties and expectations of each are determined and defined as well as

the role of the Mentoring Project group or representative. Each member of the project is given a

specific role to play in the development project in order to complete it and reach toward our

outcome.

3. Determine internal processes- Project members determine logistics and processes of

mentoring, including (but not limited to):

● When the mentoring process starts/finishes.

● What specifically happens during the mentoring process.

● How often mentors and mentees meet.

● Clarification of mentoring skills.

 ● Identification of types (technical, leadership, political, organizational) of knowledge

transfer.

● How to match mentors and mentees.

● Communication to those not involved in mentoring.

● Clarification of the difference between coach role and mentor role.

● How to measure the effectiveness of mentoring.

4. Customize communication/interaction plans- Mentoring Project Group is supposed to

determine what communications and interaction (meetings, emails, surveys, party etc.) are used

by the mentor, mentee.

IMPLEMENTATION

After we completed our mentor designing, we implemented the designed plan and action

respectively.

EVALUATION

Assess mentoring effectiveness. Using the evaluation criteria determined in the design phase,

the mentoring process is evaluated through a variety of methods. This evaluation is usually done

at several milestones during the mentoring process, as determined during the design phase.

Interventions can include changes to the process, changes of mentors/mentees, communication

updates or even cessation of the process.

PROCEDURE

Since, this project focuses on qualitative aspect of work process, we are giving more preference

to meeting and interacting with students in class rather than conducting any survey. With the

help of our Guide Dr. Sanjay, we got a chance to interact with them and talk to them openly, this

very interaction took place at room 106, Block 18.

That interaction helped us to put our intentions in front of all those first year students. We got

enough positive responses from the class, since we had to choose only two students per Mentor,

we talked to them little more and came to an end with which students to select as our mentees.

Once mentees were selected, we had to move to the mentoring sessions, we designed a very lite

and effective timetable for the sessions, 2 sessions per month. Which started from August and

ended on November. Evaluation was there at the end of every month.

INTERACTION SESSIONS

August

1-2 week

After selecting mentees, this was the very first interaction we had, in the same hall, all three of us

gather and made all the six mentees sit together. We gave them an introduction about our project.

We tried our best to make this as simple, informal, friendly as possible. We noticed that most of
the mentees were conservative and hesitated to open up. we encouraged them to speak or to

interact with all of us few of them tried and it went smooth but also a little unclear.

It was different from the previous interaction we had with them in the lecture hall, at room 106

block 18 (the selection day), this talk was brief and more targeting toward our objectives and

plan, we gave them assurance that we will try our best to help them with their problems in a very

honest, safe & confidential manner. We gave them the schedule (date for upcoming sessions}in

which venue and time was fixed by us in accordance with our mentees.

2nd-4th week

In this interaction session, we changed our mentoring strategy, now instead of making mentees

sit together we sat separately in respective groups (each mentor with his two mentees.) we

planned to make this interaction more highlighted and personal, since they were still hesitating

and not so open with us, we planned to go with talking about our own experience as freshers in

LPU, this created a state of empathy and a step leading toward openness.

For this session, We planned to make this interaction a little personal and more friendly, and we

noticed that this strategy worked out and till the end they opened up and were talking to us freely

and comfortably. They talked about their views and changes that came in their life after coming

to LPU. They pointed out certain problems and issues they observed. So, we can say that in this

session all mentees became open, accepting and comfortable in the end.
September

1ST & 2ND WEEK-

Since students were aware that they had to come up with problems they’re facing as it was

mentioned in the instruction plan, they came up with problems as expected

Interaction session started, we sat separately with our mentees. One of suhail’s mentee was

having problem with faculty’s teaching style. She said “few lectures that I attend are either

too long and boring or I cannot connect with the lecture and teaching, due to faculties

teaching styles”

The other girl was facing a lot of issues in her hostel like there were a lot of restrictions in her

hostel as they are supposed to report back to their hostel at a particular fixed time. she took it as a

freedom curtailment as everyone likes liberty.

Then one of the Ravi’s mentees who belongs to political science background was supposed to

learn British Poetry as an additional subject and was not able to follow up that subject which

impacted his results in a very negative manner. He wanted to get rid of this .

The other mentee was facing a lot of financial problems, he was not able to cope up with the

daily expenses which brought up him in the state of depression.

One of Sweety’s mentees was having a serious problem with her hostel mess, she was not able

to adjust with the food she was getting from her hostel mess.

The other mentee of Sweety came up with her introverted personality, although she had no

problem with her lifestyle but she accepted she’s more isolated then she thinks she should be.

Her parents asked her to be a little more social and make friends, she accepted that although she

is neither depressed nor happy.

We took a note of everyone’s concern and gave it a touch of our own perception on a

personal meeting of mentors.

3rd – 4th week

In this session we came up with possible solutions to the problems of the students, we tried our

best to solve their problems,

Suhail contacted few faculties who were teaching first year students and tried to explain to them

the issues which were faced by one of his mentees. Faculties listened to Suhail and they assured

to try hard to make their lectures more interactive and try to connect more with their students.

The other mentee who was having problems with her hostel life and restrictions in hostel, was

actually a problem of her misfit the environment and regulations of the university and girls’

hostels. Since Suhail had no control over university policies he had to make sure that his mentee

understand that all these policies and regulations were made for her own safety and maintaining

discipline.
Ravi’s mentees were having problems- 1)with studies and lack of interest on his respective

subject. 2)problem regarding his lifestyle with relation of financial stability.

The first mentee who belongs to Political Science hons. Was having a subject of Literature

(British Hons.) which he found unnecessary and was unable to study it and it was affecting his

studies negatively. Since Ravi is a student of Literature it was quite easy for him to explain how

and why should he study literature, although the biggest question was why is he even studying

literature? Ravi had no control over the syllabus of the student, all he could do was to make the

subject easier for his mentee to understand & could gain Interest in literature if possible.

The other mentee of was having a serious issue on his financial state which he was not able to

cope up with his daily expenditure, we thought that his family must be having economic issues

and mentee might be getting not enough money so that he could manage his lifestyle in LPU.

Turns out he was getting enough pocket money but his was not good at managing his money and

used to spend very quickly. In this case, Ravi had to help that mentee to make a strict budget

plan and help him to control his expenditure so that he can survive a month with the given pocket

money.

Sweety’s mentees were having problems 1) regarding hostel mess. 2) Personality based

(introvert and antisocial.)

Sweety tried to help her first mentee who was having problems with hostel mess, since hostel

mess have a very limited menu and cooking style we came to know that some students don't like

mess food at all, since they’ve paid their annual subscription fees at once already, they don’t

have any other option, they have to consume mess food and the problem with it is that they don’t

eat properly and this affects their diet affecting their daily life work. Since talking to the mess
manager and cooks could do her a little if they listened to her and tried to adjust a very little in

the food ingredients, since those cook and managers are also not having proper control over the

food that was being prepared. Sweety here, had to make sure that her mentee understand the

importance of proper diet in her life and to understand how adjusting sometimes in our life is a

crucial fact of life.

The other mentee of Sweety was having a personality based issue, she was feeling isolated and

she was feeling disconnected and issues regarding happiness in her daily life. In this case sweety

had to make sure that her mentee is should work on her personality and do some mentioned

activities to change her behavior, visions, and start opening up in social level. Since it is very

essential to understand the value of your life, and what is living to the fullest. Sweety therefore

helped her to understand a few basics of living independently, and accepting the changes of life,

she made sure that her interaction with this particular mentee must be more positive, little funny

and more energetic so that her mentee could get the positive vibe.

This session was all about talking explicitly about the issues to mentees, giving our opinion

and views toward their problems. And taking a very initial step toward the solution of the

problems faced by all mentees.

October

1ST – 2ND WEEK (EXECUTION)

In this session we finally gave them the directions of all the problems and advised them how to

deal with the said issues, since they had already started to deal with the problems from last

month as they were progressing day by day, but from October we started to give the best possible

solutions to the mentees, whereas we started reinforcement techniques, certain tasks based

activities, we tried to contact the parents of few mentees, we asked mentees to understand and

realize few life based facts and apply them to their real life.

Suhail’s first mentee who was having problems with faculty and lectures, we already discussed

to few of their faculties as we mentioned it helped to some extent, but in this situation the mentee

herself had to impart certain changes in her behavior during a lecture. Suhail suggested her to sit

in the first row, and try to engage more with the class and ask questions to make the lecture

clearer and interactive. Suhail advised her to be present both physically and mentally in the

classroom and asked her to make notes regularly during the lectures.

Suhail’s other mentee was facing the problems regarding her hostel restrictions, Suhail suggested

her that those problems are meant for the safety and security of the students, these policies

cannot be changed, but the student must try to adjust and manage with these issues. The mentee’s

was suffering from homesickness as it was her first time staying away from home making it very

difficult for her to adjust in a new environment. Suhail tried a lot to change her mind, since she

was a little stubborn in personality and she expected a little more liberty while coming in LPU.

Suhail helped her to understand that these rules are there for a reason, it took some time for her

to understand and realize that she should think of others too.

Ravi, on the other hand, was facing a very different situation, since one of his mentee was not

able to understand his subject. Ravi, being a student of literature himself, helped him to learn the

subject (British Poetry). Ravi started teaching him his subject, and before that he made sure that

his mentee understood the importance of studying British Poetry. Since the mentee was from

Political science Hons, it was difficult for all of us to understand or answer why he got a

literature subject in his first year, we could’ve tried to talk to the staff who prepare syllabus but it

couldn’t help him to study that, since it was not going to change even if talked to them. So, we

dropped the idea of talking to staff members and Ravi talked to the mentee and made him realize

that he has to accept this subject first and that denying it won’t help him. Gradually the mentee

understood that. Ravi constantly gave him YouTube video link of topics of British literature that

could easily help him. Ravi made sure that he is making notes and giving time to that subject,

turned out that the mentee was a fast learner who understood the subject easily.

The other mentee of Ravi, was having a problem with his budget. Since we noticed that the

mentee was getting a good amount of pocket money, the problem was with the expenditure of

the student. His parents were called without the knowledge of the mentee. We discussed the

situation of the mentee to which his parents replied that he spent money on junk food, clothing

and unnecessary products a lot. We had to make him stop spending his pocket money

unnecessarily and helped him create a budget plan, which included his diet plan, transportation

budget, rent, bills, and other necessary needs. excluding his needs, he still had 3100 rupees

left.We asked him to spend this money as he needed and the rest of it not be used for other

necessities since they’re included in his budget. We gave him a month to try the Budget plan

since it wasn’t that easy as we knew that he would spend them on junk food anyway, so, Ravi

suggested a Budget app on his smartphone and we asked him to entry you expenditure in this app
whenever he used his money and be honest with it. Since the mentee himself wanted to change

his habit of spending money, he accepted this activity and started to follow a strict budget plan.

Sweety on the other hand was facing difficulty to help out her first mentee, who was facing

problems with hostel mess, it was very hard for her to eat hostel mess, we initially asked her to

go to the administration block and ask for cancelation of her hostel mess subscription so that she

could get her refund if possible,which she refused. Sweety talked to her parents and talked about

her problem, mentee’s parents were aware of their ward’s issue but they were helpless. Sweety

asked if they can get her a new subscription in the hostel café, which according to the mentee

have a proper food as she liked it. Fortunately, parents of the mentee had no problem in

switching her ward’s food subscription since it was wasting their money on hostel mess. They

accepted it without any objection. Now, the mentee has subscribed from the hostel café and she

doesn’t have any complaint yet.

The other mentee of Sweety was facing a personality based problem. Sweety already asked her

to talk to her classmates and try to approach them with a smile, ask for notes and other help,

which could help her more in engaging with her fellow classmates. Sweety even called her

parents and talked to them. Her parents told that their ward is very introverted, shy and has a

limited number of friends, not liking to leave her house. She was very conservative and liked to

play video games only.

This revealed that she didn't like to go out and make friends, neither did she like to explore,

eventually making her feel very isolated, helpless and depressed, when found herself in such a

huge campus where she doesn’t know many people making her uncomfortable.
One of the best things we did was, introducing Sweety’s other mentee to that girl. They became

friends very quickly. She was a little happy. Sweety asked her mentee to go to gym, DSW, or

play outdoor games, she even recommended her to practice meditation, all these practices could

help her feel engaged and calm. She Promised to try any one of these for sure.

EXECUTION PART WAS DONE BY NOW, WE GAVE ALMOST A MONTH TO ALL

MENTEES TO WORK UPON GIVEN ACTIVITIES AND EXERCISES, CONSTANTLY

CONTACTED THEM, KEPT THEM IN TOUCH THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA. WE

WERE HOPING FOR A BETTER CHANGE. WE PLANNED TO MEET THEM ON

THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER (10TH). IT WAS THE EVALUATION & FEEDBACK

SESSION.

NOVEMBER 10TH (Evaluation)

This was the last interaction session of ours. We mentors already observed gradual changes in

some mentees but this was the day to finally check if their problems got solved at some extent or

not.

Starting with Suhail’s first mentee was now able to interact better in her lectures, she realized

that she was not participating enough in the lectures, she now can easily ask her doubts. Their

lecturers are now more friendly, trying their best to make lectures more interactive by adding up

little games and activities during lectures (Stated by the mentee.) She also encourages others to

ask questions, she concluded in the end that FROM BOTH SIDES (FACULTY &

STUDENTS) SHOULD TRY TO MAKE THE CLASS MORE INTERESTING.

The other mentee of Suhail who had problems with hostel policies & regulations understood that

these rules are formed for their own safety. She was still a little unsatisfied in comparison to

rules for boys. She at least learnt that she should accept rules & adjust with society. (stated

by her.)

Ravi’s mentee on the other hand, overcame his difficulty to study British literature, he built a

basic understanding of the subject. He watched various YouTube videos in Hindi referred by

Ravi. The mentee said that he used to deny the subject since it was out his course, he forced

himself to show interest on British poetry. He is a good and studious student hence he easily

understood its concept and was able to study it easy.

The second mentee of Ravi had a problem with financial balancing. Ravi gave him a budget plan

and asked him to follow it seriously. He did it accordingly, and the result was very positive, he

saved almost 400 rupees in the end and he said he felt very safe and happy when he saw that in

the end he had money in his pocket, he said, “I FEEL HAPPY THAT I FOUND A

CONVENIENT WAY TO SAVE MONEY AND LEARNT THE IMPORTANCE OF

SAVING.”

Sweety’s mentee on the other hand overcame from her mess food problem completely, she was

happy, so were her parents, she said she would’ve done proper enquiry before opting for mess

food, since she’s now paying for hostel café subscription along with hostel mess food. We

noticed that she was one of the most satisfied mentee among the six.

Sweety’s second mentee stated that she is now feeling a little warm since she made two new

friends, she started going to DSW for learning Guitar as recommended by Sweety. She realized

that she had time and potentiality but she was not recognizing it. She Stated “I LOVE TO SEE
HOW OTHERS RESPONSES IN A POSITIVE MANNER, SHE’S AN INTROVERT AND

FEELS UNCOMFORTABLE AROUND OTHERS, BUT AT LEAST SHE LEARNT

HOW TO APPROACH SOMEONE.”

[We, all knew that this is going to be our last interaction session, they, we are being a little

satisfied and happy, in the end we all went to a restaurant had a food, they were happy that

they made new senior friends, and how seniors helped them and interacted with them made

them feel safe.]

CONCLUSION

Despite the problems in finding the needed time, which is always too short, mentors and mentees

found a special time for this greater cause of mentorship. For mentors it was a good moment to

solve the problems of mentees as they have faced the same problems in their first year. For

mentees it was encouraging to have a person who can help them in difficult situations. From the

point of view of subject discussions, the focus was in didactics and pedagogical design as well as

in organizational culture and classroom management. A good and encouraging point was for the

mentors the desire of progress and development of the mentees. From the mentees perspective,

the most appreciated feature of the mentors was the desire for help and the open relation which

was built. A strong professional development of the mentors facilitates the relationship, but in

the same way, it was important for the development of these good relationship concerning

mentors’ human qualities. Each of us needs some time for integration and learning or suitability

in the organizational behavior and as short as we can make it, by keeping a high standard of

quality, the more productive we are as professionals, regardless of the area in which we work and
the more in the educational environment. All the problems of the mentees were solved in a great

manner; a lot of change was seen in the life of the mentees. The main objective of the work was

fulfilled and both mentors and mentees learned a lot from this work. The problems which were

easily accessible to mentors were addressed/solved and the problems which were not under the

control of mentors were solved in a different approach by providing alternate solutions for them.
Works Cited

Adams, Luther J. The Blackwell Handbook of Mentoring: A Multiple Perspective Approach,

edited by Steven A. Reich, vol. 1,Greenwood Press, 2006, pp. 504-06.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. The Potential Role of an Adult Men-tor in Influencing High-Risk

Behaviors in Adolescents. Turner, Jacob Lawrence, pp.17-21.

Grossman, James R. Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration. U of

Chicago P, 1989.

Hills, Patricia. Faculty/Student Mentor Program: Effects on Academic Performance. Turner,

Jacob Lawrence, pp.141-53.