Episode Six: How was your e-mentoring experience?
Shirley O’Brien: I’m Shirley O’Brien and I am the coordinator of our post-professional online doctoral program, and I am so excited to have quite a breadth of really qualified post-professional students here. We do that e-mentoring weekly and do you want to talk at all about that? I mean, how did that work for you? Everybody does it differently, every faculty member approaches it very differently.
Dr. Jenn Veenendall: It was a huge part of the whole process for me. I love that we had that level of support at the end when we’re really putting all the pieces together on our capstone, and you know, when I talk about how the faculty really gets to know us personally and really guides us, it was just huge. I can’t imagine not having that, I guess.
Dr. Crystal Coffman: I concur with that like I think, and again, I got lucky too because and I’m sure all the faculty were amazing, but you were my advisor, but I feel like you’ve become a mentor but also just a friend. I talked to my husband about “Oh Shirley said this, I need to text her to let her know my OB appointment went well”, but that level of support was phenomenal, and you went out of your way also, like we would have our appointments on Mondays which were always so flexible with whatever was going on in my life or your life. But how many times, I can’t even tell you, that I was like wait I’m confused by what I need to turn in on Monday and like Friday or Saturday you would just call me and just be like “Okay, here we are. This is what you need to do.” You know, there just was that level of support.
Dr. G. Ebony Seay: It was very supportive, it was easy, and made things a lot easier to have that virtual connection. Zoom is my friend now, and when you talk to someone every week, you can’t help but develop a relationship with them, especially talk to them more than once a week because you have questions, or you need more clarification. So, just being able to have a conversation, not via email made it a lot easier for me because I need that kind of support, I’m that kind of learner.
Dr. Stedmon Hopkins: My mentor was Dr. Simpkins, and I actually never had her as a teacher until just like last semester and we met every week, and some weeks it was funny because it turned into me just laying out everything I was going to do and she’s like “You’re good. You’re fine and when you want to meet again?” I’d be like “We should meet the same time next week. I’ll talk to you again, talk through everything.,” and it was really beneficial, it’s been a huge help.
Dr. Christina Bretz: I was the same way. I had Dr. Hayden and I had never had Dr. Hayden as a faculty and we would meet every Thursday at two o’clock, it was consistent, and one of the things that I loved is that she would record the meetings so that I could go back and listen. Sometimes I’d listen three times, you know, and just replay because I needed to get that in my head of what she was saying, so I think that was really helpful and I just appreciate it so much to have that support.
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