We, the Youth Leadership Team, designed and facilitated our first mentor workshop on January 29, 2010. It was about building a relationship and creating a safe space for your intern, and designing and leading it was one of the most nerve-racking and rewarding experiences we have ever had.
The big-picture planning was the easiest part of designing the workshop, because we all had a common idea of what we wanted to include. The most difficult part of the planning was putting together the detailed trainer’s manual, because we had to design the scenarios, a tip sheet, and the discussion questions on our own. We had to do a lot of practicing to look professional and make ourselves feel comfortable while speaking in public.
The workshop itself was wonderful for so many different reasons. One reason was that many mentors came to the training to support us. We were all really nervous about the mentors not participating during the training, but they were really talkative throughout the training, which made us really happy.
Our favorite part of the most awesome mentor training ever was the Q & A panel. We felt important that so many mentors wanted our perspective on building a healthy relationship and creating a safe space. Mentors really wanted to hear about our experiences as interns. We loved facilitating our mentor training, and we are so proud that we accomplished something so big. We can’t wait until our next training on Wednesday, March 31, 2010. We hope to see some new mentors there.
To find out more about Youth Leadership Team members Kiarra Clark, Che’Graftenay Mims, Jennifer Nguyen and Thurston Zhu, please see our staff bios.