Milena Gomes

I first chose to mentor with IntoUniversity in my first year of university because I thought it would be a good way to gain more experience working with children. I am working towards being a social worker in the future and so that would be a valuable experience to have. As I continued to volunteer with IntoUniversity it became more than just experience but something I really enjoyed. I enjoyed seeing how my mentee improved socially and academically; it was rewarding to see her become more confident and surer in herself. That was one of my favourite parts of mentoring. In the 2 years I have volunteered with IntoUniversity I have been able to develop my leadership, organisational and communication skills. As well as this, the opportunity has helped me learn how to build a rapport and listen to what my mentee needs. Overall, the opportunity has been very rewarding and something I highly recommend.

Wiki Jeglinska

I was drawn to volunteering with IntoUniversity because I am passionate about IntoUniversity’s aim of tackling educational inequalities and raising aspirations of young people. My favourite part of mentoring has been seeing the personal development journey of my mentee. I think that helping my mentee think about their future aspirations was a very rewarding process and made me feel like I was truly making a difference which is something that is very important to me. I believe that being a student mentor this year has helped me develop many skills which will be useful to me in the future, such as time management, adaptability, creativity, and communication. I would recommend this volunteering opportunity to anyone who is passionate about making a difference in education.

Why do you mentor with IntoUniversity?

I would like to pursue a career within Education in the future and therefore I thought that an opportunity to be a volunteer Student Mentor with IntoUniversity would be a valuable way of gaining experience. I started mentoring in my third year – but I wish I had started sooner as the experience has been very positive and has helped me develop many skills. I was drawn to volunteering with IntoUniversity because I am passionate about IntoUniversity’s aim of tackling educational inequalities and raising aspirations of young people. The team at the Coventry centre have been very supportive and encouraging throughout this year, especially considering the change to online mentoring which has been challenging for everyone, this made my experience of volunteering extremely positive, and I would recommend it to anyone who is passionate about making a difference as well as wanting to gain new skills

What is your favourite part of mentoring?

My favourite part of mentoring has been seeing the personal development journey of my mentee. When we started the mentoring sessions, my mentee was quite shy and sometimes struggled to participate in the activities. Throughout the year, we built a really great relationship and my mentee certainly gained more and more confidence with each session. We worked together to reach a variety of SMART targets and we talked about topics such as Student Finance, University subjects, Clubs and Societies; my mentee was initially unsure about whether they wanted to go to university, however after learning about these different topics they have decided that they would like to go to university in the future. I think that it is really important to raise the aspirations of young people and explore future opportunities with them. I think that helping my mentee with this was a very rewarding process and made me feel like I was truly making a difference which is something that is very important to me.

What skills have you developed/gained by taking part in the programme?

I believe that being a student mentor this year has helped me develop many skills which will be useful to me in the future. When planning my mentoring sessions, I did my best to ensure that my sessions were creative and innovative, and that my mentee would not only learn new knowledge or skills, but also have fun. I made sure that I came to each mentoring session with an outline of what I wanted my mentee to gain from the session. I think this helped me develop skills such as time management and creativity. I also developed my ability to adapt to situations, often I had to adjust the style or the length

of the activities which I had planned during the session to suit the needs of my mentee. Overall, I think that this volunteering experience has helped me develop my ability to work with young people which will be very valuable to me in the future as I would like to work in the education sector.