Educ401 - Final Reflection

Danielle Minji Jung
EDUC 401
December 14, 2015
Reflection Paper
I was first drawn into this program at the end of junior year, reflecting
on how much I still wanted to do with my short, final year left at UW. I wished
to leave something behind and give back those who could benefit from my
own rocky path of successes, failures, and experiences as an undergraduate.
With this expectant mentality, the difficulties of personally connecting and
supporting an individual student didnt even occur to me. Throughout this
quarter, I was only marginally able to help my student with study strategies
and good habits. Unfortunately, my mentee was not at that step in her
educational process, and instead needed more support on her belonging to
UW, motivation for school, and future plans.
While I wasnt able to focus too much on academic skills like writing or
test-taking strategies, I worked to provide the time and space for my mentee
slow down, be honest with herself, and practice self-reflection. For example,
Jyoti would spend close to seven hours in the library at a time with little
productivity and a large drain on her energy. I encouraged her to be more
efficient during her study time with a few strategiesscheduling a regular
time everyday to study, taking short breaks between subjects, and no social
media or Netflix during study time. Simply telling her to do these behaviors
would have had little impact, but by giving her the time to reflect on how her
habits negatively affect her energy and motivation, she was able to conclude
herself that success in school is readily attainable by tweaking behaviors
here and there. Furthermore, I eventually learned that my mentee
sometimes treated her health status as a crutch or an all-excuses button in
context of her classes, using it to maybe shy away from taking full
responsibility and charge of her education. By self-handicapping herself, it
was difficult to commit to classes and responsibilities that she could easily
shirk off. Through our short time together, however, I think that I helped to
open my mentees eyes to this damaging cycle and to motivate her to do
things differently. This was a turning point in our relationship, and it was
amazing to see her question her old approach, have genuine hope for the
future, and actually begin to craft dreams for the future, all before my eyes.
By bringing out newfound sense of self-awareness in my mentee, I believe
that she now knows herself at a much deeper level and can better set herself
up for success down the road.
On the other hand, my student taught me many lessons throughout
the quarter, including the importance of active listening and caring.
Sometimes I would come into sessions with a preconceived notion of how
best and for what topic to help my mentee, instead of working to create an
environment where my mentee could be open about recent struggles and
areas of weakness. Working with Jyoti through the quarter revealed how
crucial it is to repeatedly encourage, reaffirm, and praise the little steps of
progress. My student helped me realize that constantly receiving help can be
draining and damaging to self-confidence, and that many students really

need tutors to be open and eager to build up them up. When I really affirmed
how much potential and capability my mentee had, Jyoti came to realize that
she deserved better from herself and she was currently doing herself a
disservice. I realized that the greatest strides were taken when I was able to
let Jyoti come to her own conclusions and realizations for behavior change
and habits. Simply encouraging her to do this or that was not enough; real
progress came when she claimed those changes for herself.
With this experience as a tutor-mentor, in the future, I would be more
bold and authoritarian from the start of the relationship. I think that more
firmness in the beginning may have encouraged Jyoti, who often canceled at
the last moment, to take our tutoring sessions more seriously and attend
more regularly. This class covered many of the crucial skills for college,
however, it didnt quite address the issues I faced with my mentee as
heavily. Covering more topics like setting long-term goals, better addressing
issues of motivation, and developing mentees personal and academic
passions would a crucial way to better equip tutor-mentors.
While this tutor-mentoring was not exactly what I expected, it has
provided me with an invaluable learning experience of how to individually
reach out and motivate better behaviors. As an aspiring healthcare
professional, I feel I have a better picture of the many challenges and
barriers that come up while trying to support and care for an individual. I
have a greater understanding of the importance of personal connection,
genuine encouragement, and striking a balance between being a firm leader

and an approachable fellow human. Furthermore, being a tutor-mentor
helped to reaffirm that my driving passion is helping and caring for others.
There were many challenges, but I only have more excitement to continue to
individually support others in the future, in whatever capacity I can.

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Danielle Minji Jung

draining and damaging to self-confidence, and that many students really

genuine encouragement, and striking a balance between being a firm leader

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