Activities

Student Mentoring

Student mentoring in Tuljaram Chaturchand College of Arts, Science and Commerce is defined as a one-to-one relationship between a student and the mentor that occurs over a prolonged period of time. Mentoring is a very valuable developmental activity implemented in the education field. At the core of mentoring is the relationship between the mentor and the mentee. The focus of the activity is the development of the mentee as a result of their mentor’s advice, guidance and knowledge. It can be a short or long-term relationship, where the goals may change but are always set by the learner i.e. the mentee. The learner owns both the goals and the process.

Aims & Objectives of Mentoring Programme:

The main focus with mentoring is to assist the students individually or collectively for academic, career, personal and financial decision making. The mentor is not there to provide ‘the answers’ but to guide the mentee towards ‘the answer’ that is right for them. The mentee must lead in identifying issues, and with the guidance from the mentor, resolve them. In this context the following objectives defined the mentoring activity implemented by the college:

To provide consistent support, guidance and concrete help to the students and provide them with a positive role model.
To focus and motivate students who have significant challenges like low self-esteem, poor achievement, low aspiration and insufficient guidance or motivation.
To identify and help weak students who may need additional support guidance for becoming productive citizen.
To provide positive feedback and an adult relationship that can be a “life-line” for a struggling student.
To give special guidance to the advanced and talented students so that they develop social skills to relate better to their peers.
To facilitate areas of interest and help the advanced students to go beyond classroom instruction.
To monitor the students’ regularity and discipline.
To enable the parents to know about the performance & regularity of their ward.

As most of the students are freshly admitted they may face challenges in the following aspects such as adaptation to new environment and academic schedule, to understand the needs of the curriculum, to develop healthy interpersonal relationship and also for personality development. The student mentoring is a unique scheme which can address the varying requirements of the students and help them to improve their skills and build self- confidence so that they recognize their social responsibility as well as excel in their academic and professional career.

Roles and Responsibilities

i. Mentor :

A mentor is viewed as a knowledgeable professional who is willing to pass on the benefits of his or her knowledge and experience. It is vital for a mentor not to simply ‘tell’ the mentee what to do but instead, offers knowledge and experience so that mentees can decide on their own actions.

Within this model of mentoring the mentor’s primary role is to facilitate reflection and learning in relation to the outcomes identified by the mentee.

Key concepts in this approach to mentoring are therefore :

Facilitating reflection, learning and development, rather than acting as an expert teacher
Listen and be supportive
Provide non-judgmental support
Supporting self directed learning – encouraging the mentee to be responsible for identifying their own development needs and finding ways to address them
Being mentee centered (as opposed to mentor or problem centered) – focusing on the mentee and what they need from a session
Clarify goals of mentee
Offering knowledge and experience when it is appropriate as opposed to telling them what to do or making decisions for them
Provide guidance on issues raised

Duties of a Mentor :

Maintain Mentor-Mentee Booklet
Maintain batch wise student roll call list
Keep contact details of students & parents
Record of previous semester result
Record of Mentor-Student meeting (Once in a month).
Provide information about students to each teacher whenever required
Student counseling should be done whenever required.
Maintain record of monthly defaulter list
Send letters to parent for parents meet
Maintain record of monthly undertakings of defaulter students
Maintain data of students achievements
Maintain discipline among students

ii. Mentee :

Mentees are responsible for gaining their mentors’ trust and confidence by interacting morally, ethically and collegially so as to value the mentor’s time, professional and personal commitments. Mentees roles will depend on their need, academic experience and the nature of the mentoring relationship. Mentees participating in the Mentoring Program are required to:

Fill up the Mentoring Program Form and submit it to the mentor.(in person, virtual, etc.)
Devote time to the mentoring relationship and interacting often with the mentor.
Take full advantage of opportunities provided by the mentor.
Keep the mentor informed of academic progress, successes, challenges and other concerns (Absence/Leave etc.).

Expected Outcomes of the Mentoring Programme :

Positive impute on attendance percentage of students
Decrease in drop out ratio of students
Strengthening the relationship the mentor and the students.
Improvement in academic performance of students.

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