My role as an OBU project mentor

As a mentor, I am here to support you through the preparation of the project and provide you with advice and feedback. Over the years, I learned a lot about how to be a helpful and supportive mentor and what tools I can use to get the mentee to think for themselves, and become more independent and confident in their abilities to complete the OBU project.

As part of your project, we will have three mentor meetings. These take place at key points throughout the 2-4 months period during which you’re working towards your BSc. The meetings focus not only on planning and research but also on developing your listening, questioning and presentation skills.

Before each meeting, you will send me an agenda with questions and issues that you wish to cover during the meeting. You should focus on the key issues and identify the desired outcomes from the meeting. Take notes from each meeting as those will become very helpful when preparing your Skills and Learning Statement.

I recommend reading through the Mentors section of the Information Pack, as this will help you understand what you can expect from each meeting and also suggests what questions you and I will talk about during the project. I would also like to draw your attention to the last section stating what mentors do not do.

So what else can you expect from me as your mentor? Here are a few of the principles I stand by:

• I’m approachable and have a genuine interest in helping you succeed. I want you to feel as good as I did when I found out I passed!
• I listen and actively ask questions that will help you in your thinking.
• I respect confidentiality.
• You can use me as a sounding board to explore ideas and issues arising from research.
• I will provide you with positive and constructive feedback.
• I will challenge and discuss things with you.
• I’m here to offer support and encouragement.
• I’ll help you meet your objectives.
• I’ll help make sure you ask the right questions, think systematically, learn to apply appropriate evaluation techniques, and analyse and interpret the findings.
• I will remain neutral and non-judgmental.

I hope you found this useful. 

Anna