Author Archives: Gail Lu

About Gail Lu

My name is Gail (Florence) Lu and I am Coordinator of Student Services at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

It’s never too early to volunteer for the MAP Program, Spring 2009

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Even though we’ve just begun Fall 2008, the MAP Peer Mentoring Program is already accepting applications for peer mentors for Spring 2009.  Therefore if you are interested in becoming a mentor for the MAP Program for Spring 2009, please apply here!

Please note: If you are currently a mentee in our Fall 2008 program, once you have completed one semester here at MIIS, you will be eligible to be a mentor.

Current MAP participants and MAP Program friends, please pass this information on to all prospective peer mentors! -Gail 😀

Notes from our Brown Bag Lunch Meeting and update about upcoming social events

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 Here is a list of social events that MAP Program Participants suggested during our Brown Bag Lunch Meeting that we had on September 9th. 

Suggested Social Events

Big Sur

Santa Cruz Boardwalk

Meet up before and attend the Halloween Dance

MAP Panel

Kayaking

Creating T-shirts

Bonfire at the beach/potluck

International Cooking Class

Beach Cleanup

Point Lobos/Weed Bash

Skydiving

Volleyball Game

Arts and Crafts mural creation

Potluck lunch

Movie night

Game night / Ping Pong Tournament

 Study Break/Snack Potluck

For our upcoming social events, due to busy schedules and other events happening on campus, I think it would be best to postpone having a MAP panel discussion until next semester (Spring 2009). Same goes for off campus events as they will require more careful planning.  For the off campus events that were suggested, whenever possible I will try to send out related information so that mentor/mentee pairs and friends can go on their own. MAP Program Participants, if you have more suggestions or information about events that you’d like to share, please let me know by commenting here or sending me an email.

As for on-campus events, I am working on planning and scheduling some of the events that were suggested during our brown bag lunch meeting.  More information about these events and when we will be having them will be coming soon!  -Gail 🙂

More Mentoring Resources

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East Connecticut State University has a nice page about peer mentoring that includes links to other resources about college life, culture and academic excellence tips. You can find it here.

Whether you utilize the information for your mentoring conversations, use the information on your own, or refer a friend to this page, hopefully you’ll find some useful information and tips for your graduate school experience! 

-Gail 🙂

Interested in Contributing to the MAP Program BLOG?

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MAP Program Participants: If you have an Exchange email address already and would like to contribute to the MAP Program Blog, please let me know and I’ll try to add you as a contributor to this blog. 

The new exchange email addresses look like this:

flu@exchange.miis.edu

The Exchange email addresses have been instated for some student employees of the university and will eventually be campus wide in the future. In the meantime, if you do not have an Exchange email address yet, you can still contribute to the MAP Program blog by emailing me a blog entry, which I will then post for you on the blog.

If you have any questions, please let me know. In the meantime, looking forward to hearing from you in regards to contributing to the MAP Program Blog! -Gail 🙂

MIIS Casa

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Here the first installment of a YouTube video series being produced by Devin Lueddeke, an Enrollment Manager in Recruiting and Kabir, one of your fellow students here at MIIS.   The title of this series is called MIIS Casa and it showcases student living arrangements with the hopes of giving new and prospective students an idea of what types of living arrangements can be found in this area.

Please check out the first installment of MIIS Casa, it’s an enjoyable watch as well as is informative about one type of housing that is available in this area.

 [youtube DNrr_kIwxe8]

Mentors, please impart any advice and insights to your mentees about how to make their living situations more comfortable, for example the best places to buy appliances and furniture. If you know of any good restaurants in their area or some great sites that they should check out, please also share these. Also, as always, please share any other tips that you feel your new peers should know!

-Gail 🙂

MAP Program Facebook

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 As requested at the MAP Brown Bag Lunch Meeting yesterday, we now have a MAP Program Facebook!

 Please join to meet up with your mentor/mentee and other MAP program participants. Discussions about mentoring, leadership, Monterey Institute student life, graduate school and life in Monterey are welcome! 

Right now it is a closed group for only MAP participants.  Please send a request to join and as the administrator of the group I will add you as soon as possible.

If you have any questions, please let me know. Hope to see you soon on Facebook!

-Gail 🙂

Mentee Training, Fall 2008 MAP Program

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The Fall 2008 Mentee Training has also been uploaded to Youtube! It is 9 minutes and 42 seconds long. MAP Mentees, please watch the training and let me know if you have any questions.

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The text in the video is fairly small and so the full powerpoint presentation is also available in PDF form by clicking here.

Further training materials for our Mentees to read are:

Tips for Mentees

Resources Available at Student Affairs

Looking forward to seeing you at the MAP Program brown bag lunch on Tuesday, September 9th from 12:00-1:00 pm in Casa Fuente room CF434!

-Gail 😀

Fall 2008 MAP Mentor Training

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The Fall 2008 Mentor Training has been uploaded to Youtube! It is 8 minutes and 57 seconds long. MAP Mentors, please watch the training and let me know if you have any questions.

[youtube G8yPOTivn2M]

The text in the video is small and so the full powerpoint presentation is available in PDF form by clicking here.

Further training materials for our Mentors to read are:

Tips for Mentors

Resources Available at Student Affairs

Looking forward to seeing you at the MAP Program brown bag lunch on Tuesday, September 9th from 12:00-1:00 pm in Casa Fuente room CF434!

-Gail 🙂

Peer Mentoring in the News

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Viva Peer Mentoring! “Google-ing” peer mentoring yields links to mentoring programs all over the country, including university peer mentoring programs like our own. 🙂

Here is a quote from a peer mentor at another university:

From The Etownian.com article “Class of 2012 arrives to open arms, eager Peer Mentors”.

“I’ve been lucky enough to be a Peer Mentor for three years and I’ve seen it grow into an incredible program with so much potential for helping future first-years,” Kristi Warner, senior Peer Mentor Trainer (at Elizabethtown College), said.

“It’s such a great opportunity to know that we have a key role in the first-year students’ transition to college, especially since we’ve gone through the same thing and have learned by experience.”

Another mentoring program in the news is:  “Mentor program recieves Nat’l grant”:

Have you found a mentoring program article in the news lately? Please share it by commenting here! 😀

MAP Program Brown Bag Lunch and Trainings

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Just a reminder, the MAP program will be having a MAP Program brown bag lunch on Tuesday, September 9th from 12:00-1:00 pm in Casa Fuente room CF434. This will be a great opportunity to speak with your mentor/mentee as well as other MAP participants.

 

The agenda for this lunch time meeting will be to meet and greet each other as well as brainstorm future MAP program social events and activities. We will take a group photo for our program webpage and discuss the blog that I have created for the program as well. Looking forward to seeing you there! 🙂

 

💡 In terms of training, the MAP program trainings will be made available this Friday, September 5th. More details about where to access the trainings will be sent out via email this Friday.

Tips for Mentees

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As a follow up to our tips for mentors, here are some tips for Mentees!

Source: http://www.apa.org/pi/disability/mentoring/tipsformentors.html

Tips for Mentees

1. Initiate. In order to sustain the mentoring relationship, take the initiative to ask your mentor a question, to let him or her know your educational and professional interests and objectives, and to ask about his/her own experiences.

2. Honor your commitment. Your mentor has volunteered to take on the added responsibility of mentoring. Please be appreciative of his or her time and investment; respond in a timely manner to your mentor’s questions and comments. If you don’t have the time to respond at the time, send a short message letting him or her know you will be in contact when you have the opportunity.

3. Expect Support, Not Miracles. You can expect a certain level of support and advice from a mentor, but he or she can’t solve your problems for you. Perhaps the most valuable quality a mentor can offer is perspective. A mentor can put the situation in perspective, offer feedback, serve as a sounding board, and identify resources that may be helpful to you.

4. Communicate clearly. Initiate contact with your mentor if you have questions or need to discuss something. Identify your needs and communicate them as clearly as possible to your mentor. It may be helpful to put some focused energy into organizing your thoughts and concerns before talking to your mentor, so that the time is spent wisely.

5. Be Teachable. Be willing to learn new things, obtain another perspective, and be responsive to suggestions.

Tips for Mentees were developed with the aid of the following resources:

Ambrose, Susan A. et al., (1997). Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering: No Universal Constants. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Muller, Carol B., (1997). Mentoring along the Career Track in the Twenty-First Century: Mentoring and Mentors for Students. A Report Prepared for Dartmouth College.

Have tips for mentees that you’d like to mention? Please comment here! 💡

Tips for Mentors

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Here are some helpful tips for mentors from http://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/staffhr/mentoring/mentor_tips.htm

 

10 TIPS FOR MENTORS

1. What’s Required. Remember that effective mentoring requires commitment, time and skill.
2. What You Can Offer. Think about what you have to give in a mentoring relationship.

3. What Your Mentee Needs. Remember that an effective mentor is sensitive to the mentee’s needs.

4. Practical Optimism. Project yourself in a positive manner (i.e., as someone interested in supporting your mentee).

5. Make Yourself Accessible. Once your mentee has made contact, please make every effort to respond in a reasonable timeframe.

6. Set Expectations. Define expectations and ground rules at the beginning of the mentoring relationship.

7. Identifying Assumptions. Help your mentee understand when he may be operating from an assumption (which may or may not be accurate).

8. Start off with an introduction. Tell the other person a bit about yourself, both professionally and personally. This helps give the other person some idea of who you are, and it also provides conversation starters…and better understanding about you and your world.

9. Look ahead at your calendar. Are there any days you know that you’ll be offline or ultra-busy? If so…let the other person know, so that if s/he doesn’t hear from you, that person knows it’s because you’re away or you’re swamped.

10. What if your mentee is going through a rough time? Be supportive, yet set clear boundaries. As a mentor, you are not expected to be a therapist.

 

http://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/staffhr/mentoring/mentor_tips.htm
ABA Mentorship Program – Tips for Mentors

 

Have other helpful tips for mentors? Please share them by commenting here! 💡

Welcome!

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Welcome to the blog of the Monterey Institute Ambassador (MAP) Program! 

MAP is a peer mentoring program whose mission is to help ease a new student’s transition to graduate work and life in Monterey as well as to initiate new student interactions with established students with the intention of encouraging professional networking, information sharing, friendships and community at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

For more information please visit: http://www.miis.edu/saffairs_map.html

More blog entries about the MAP program and mentoring will be appearing soon, please stay tuned! 🙂

 –Gail Lu, Coordinator of Student Services and the MAP Program