Celebrating National Mentoring Month: My Mentors and My Students by Elaine Ocker
“I don’t want my students to be afraid to ask questions or contact me for any reason. There are no “dumb” questions! Being a mentor has definitely changed my life. I have a large group of people looking to me for guidance each and every day. It is unlike any other job I have ever had.”
Mentoring is all about shaping the life of a student. Students come to us from all walks of life. Some have been out of school for twenty years, and others for only a few months. My goal is for every student to leave my class having learned skills and information that they never had before. I try to channel the wisdom of the mentors I have had throughout my life and help students feel like they can do ANYTHING that they work toward in their lives.
I have been extremely lucky to have many mentors throughout my life. In high school, Mr. Earl Miller believed in me more than I believed in myself. I went from being an average writer in my AP English class to the student who had research papers displayed on the board for all to use as an example of how to write. I was also blessed to have Mrs. Jill Mohr as a mentor. She pushed me to think outside the box and reach for the stars. When other people in my life were telling me I couldn’t do something, she was the one who always said that I could do anything. After high school, I attended Tiffin University. During my undergraduate work, I had Brad Rees as an instructor for my first Public Relations course. I loved PR so much that I tailored my major to include a concentration in PR. After that, Scott Britton helped me obtain an internship in the Media Relations department under the direction of the brilliant Lisa Williams. That was when I started to really understand what media relations and PR were all about. My six month internship turned into a graduate assistant program and a position that I still hold today. Thank you Lisa for all of the opportunities you have given me, the knowledge you have passed on to me, and (most of all) for believing in me for all of these years! I would not be where I am at in my life today without your support and guidance.
In the middle of my MBA program (through Tiffin University), I had an instructor that was really wonderful. Laura Ketter was my professor for an online management course. One day I had an important question that could not wait for an email response. I felt terrible, but I had to call her on a Saturday. Without hesitation, she spent 30 minutes on the phone with me making sure that I had all of the information that I needed in order to complete the project that I was working on. She truly went above and beyond for her students. It was after that course that a light bulb went off in my head… “This is what I want to do with my life!!!” From that point forward, I paid very close attention to the characteristics of my instructors. I started a list of what I did and did not want to do in my classroom. I knew that if I was going to be a professor, I wanted to be the best I could be.
My students motivate me very much. I can be having a really bad day and get an email from a student thanking me for something I said or helped with. It makes whatever was going on so much better. At the end of the day, I am there for each and every student. After all, it is because of them that I am instructing classes in the first place.
I have had many wonderful experiences mentoring over the past several years. Teaching online has its challenges at times. It isn’t always easy to reach everyone in an online setting. However, I try to make class and activities as interactive as possible. I don’t want my students to be afraid to ask questions or contact me for any reason. There are no “dumb” questions!
Being a mentor has definitely changed my life. I have a large group of people looking to me for guidance each and every day. It is unlike any other job I have ever had. Over the years, my students have made me much more patient, thoughtful, fair, and confident. I am not only their instructor, but their cheerleader as well.
I would tell others that becoming a mentor is an extremely rewarding job. If you like to help others and don’t mind working really hard, mentoring will change your life.
Mentoring is all about shaping the life of a student. Students come to us from all walks of life. Some have been out of school for twenty years, and others for only a few months. My goal is for every student to leave my class having learned skills and information that they never had before. I try to channel the wisdom of the mentors I have had throughout my life and help students feel like they can do ANYTHING that they work toward in their lives.
I have been extremely lucky to have many mentors throughout my life. In high school, Mr. Earl Miller believed in me more than I believed in myself. I went from being an average writer in my AP English class to the student who had research papers displayed on the board for all to use as an example of how to write. I was also blessed to have Mrs. Jill Mohr as a mentor. She pushed me to think outside the box and reach for the stars. When other people in my life were telling me I couldn’t do something, she was the one who always said that I could do anything. After high school, I attended Tiffin University. During my undergraduate work, I had Brad Rees as an instructor for my first Public Relations course. I loved PR so much that I tailored my major to include a concentration in PR. After that, Scott Britton helped me obtain an internship in the Media Relations department under the direction of the brilliant Lisa Williams. That was when I started to really understand what media relations and PR were all about. My six month internship turned into a graduate assistant program and a position that I still hold today. Thank you Lisa for all of the opportunities you have given me, the knowledge you have passed on to me, and (most of all) for believing in me for all of these years! I would not be where I am at in my life today without your support and guidance.
In the middle of my MBA program (through Tiffin University), I had an instructor that was really wonderful. Laura Ketter was my professor for an online management course. One day I had an important question that could not wait for an email response. I felt terrible, but I had to call her on a Saturday. Without hesitation, she spent 30 minutes on the phone with me making sure that I had all of the information that I needed in order to complete the project that I was working on. She truly went above and beyond for her students. It was after that course that a light bulb went off in my head… “This is what I want to do with my life!!!” From that point forward, I paid very close attention to the characteristics of my instructors. I started a list of what I did and did not want to do in my classroom. I knew that if I was going to be a professor, I wanted to be the best I could be.
My students motivate me very much. I can be having a really bad day and get an email from a student thanking me for something I said or helped with. It makes whatever was going on so much better. At the end of the day, I am there for each and every student. After all, it is because of them that I am instructing classes in the first place.
I have had many wonderful experiences mentoring over the past several years. Teaching online has its challenges at times. It isn’t always easy to reach everyone in an online setting. However, I try to make class and activities as interactive as possible. I don’t want my students to be afraid to ask questions or contact me for any reason. There are no “dumb” questions!
Being a mentor has definitely changed my life. I have a large group of people looking to me for guidance each and every day. It is unlike any other job I have ever had. Over the years, my students have made me much more patient, thoughtful, fair, and confident. I am not only their instructor, but their cheerleader as well.
I would tell others that becoming a mentor is an extremely rewarding job. If you like to help others and don’t mind working really hard, mentoring will change your life.
Elaine Ocker is a faculty member at Ivy Bridge College who is currently teaching COM241- Intro to Mass Communications.
