YMCA Mentor Program

To expand my horizons at MSU and push myself a little bit out of my comfort zone, I took on the opportunity to finish out the remainder of the 2018-2019 spring semester as a mentor for the YMCA youth mentor program. The objective of this program is to provide youth with a stable and safe mentor relationship that the child may not be receiving outside of the program. I was paid with a 4th grade boy named Preston, so for one hour every Friday, I would go to Preston's elementary school, where he would receive my sole attention for that period of time. For the most part, he was able to decide how we spent our time, and quite often he chose to spend it outside on the playground!

Overall, this experience presented a very different form of leadership than I had previously practiced within a classroom or campus activity. There was a very different "team" dynamic, since I had to be a leader to Preston while still participating in our relationship in a friendly, non-hierarchal way. Ultimately, the goal of our mentorship was to give Preston a safe space to talk about any struggles he might be experiencing, but it was unique in the fact that Preston was intended to remain unaware of this goal. I simply was supposed to be a positive role model for him through quality time, without communicating my role in his personal development.

This experience familiarized me with the hard balance that can sometimes be present in leadership positions. Although it is important for your subordinates to know that your decisions may take precedence over theirs, it is also important to create strong relationships within the team. I did also realize certain leadership values that I believe are effective regardless of the situation, such as communication, empathy, positive reinforcement, and patience. Although these values may look different depending on leadership with adults versus children, I do believe they are universal in regard to my personal leadership style.

I feel that through this experience, I was able to learn my strengths within each of these values as well. For example, although I do believe communication is a strength of mine, empathy may sometimes take precedence in situations where I feel that the individual may be hurt or discouraged by my feedback. Mentorship helped me find a better balance between the two, especially because I was working with a child that may react more sensitively than an adult. In addition, I believe that my various work with children - including the YMCA Mentor Program - has allowed me to identify effective leadership practices in those situations. I feel that my natural leadership style is to very empathetic and communicative, and this obviously translates very well into working with younger people.

In conclusion, I think this experience reaffirmed my strongest leadership values, and helped me slightly adapt my leadership style to better fit the goals of the program and the mentor/mentee relationship between Preston and I. Although this situation is different in the fact that I was working with a young child and not adults, I do believe that this experience will be useful in my leadership experiences as a business professional. Adults need just as much empathy as children receive, and it will allow for a more open and trusting relationship. I plan to continuously practice these values within all leadership opportunities - regardless of context - simply because I believe that empathy is the most useful, universal value a leader could possess.

COMPETENCY FULFILLMENT: Values Levels 1-3, Teams Levels 1 & 2