quality mentor (i)

i am going to discuss a follow-up topic of esn recruitment system. the topic is quality mentor. while, the context is quality mentor in a university of applied sciences such as inholland university.

a good recruitment system won't help esn in meeting its objective, helping international students to mingle into local culture. another ingridient is having quality mentors. but, who are these mentors?

there are some influential factors in judging someone's quality as a mentor. the first factor is one's interpersonal communication skills. being a mentor is all about communicating cross-culturally. the mentees (ones being mentored) are coming from various cultures. they sometimes come from a country with a complete different norms and values from the mentor's. having a good level of communication skills is therefore very important. by means of communication skills are for examples abilities to convey sensitive issue without causing tension, produce fresh humor, or introduce local culture without offending mentee's.

the second factor is wide knowledge over different areas. have you seen british parliamentary debate? it's between the prime minister and british mps (member of parliaments), in case you don't know -- sometimes can be very nasty. the prime minister has to be simultaneously ready with answers of diverging issues, ranging from topics of local british constituency, british flood, to global concerns like climate changing (global warming) or war in iraq. the same basic principle goes to esn mentor. mentees sometimes come up with questions that may sound ridiculous, but matter. their questions usually cover a wide range of topics, from accommodation, english test, to place to buy a glass of beer at the lowest price. thus, it is important that each mentor has abilities to handle such questions and provide satisfactory answers subsequently.

this is the end of part i of this discussion. the second part will be posted in the coming days.