eMentoring

Another full but successful trip!  It’s amazing how much you can accomplish in two days and eight meetings.  Special thanks to Johanna Sam from UBC-O who helped us accomplish so much.  The goals of this trip were to start a plan on how to recruit mentors from UBC-O and further develop our partnership with School District 23 and Westbank First Nation.  We met with a variety of interesting and passionate people, including Aboriginal educators, school administrators, university administrators, artists, students and a coyote. All believed in the usefulness of the program and the potential of eMentoring to make a positive impact (except perhaps the coyote)….but who knows 🙂

Accomplishments included getting four UBC Departments on board to recruit mentors, meeting with over 30 Aboriginal Advocates from School District 23, continuing the conversation with the school district on how to implement eMentoring in a way that complements the ongoing work within the district and answer some research questions they had about mentoring Aboriginal students in general.

Issues raised that continue to resonate with communities include: the question of having the mentees and mentors remain anonymous and what type of mentee we should be offering this opportunity.  For the most part when we go on these trips, people have concerns about mentees and mentors remaining anonymous for a number of reasons.  One is that kids are highly likely to want to tell their mentor specific information about them.  As a parent, some people we met with were concerned that parents wouldn’t let their kids be mentored by someone anonymous.   What do you think?  

Ended the trip with some Frisbee and waterslides!  We had to do something to beat the Canucks-no-sun blues.