Mentoring Through Creativity and Leadership
This project analyzes mentorship through a lens that emphasizes creativity and promotes mentee involvement. Mentorship is most commonly thought of as occurring in professional settings- yet it has great benefits in academic settings. In a partnership between the University of Minnesota Rochester and Pine Island High School, it was hoped that each and every student could experience trust and vulnerability. With this goal in mind, specific research conducted to enhance the relationships between students found two things- creativity and mentee-led activities were very effective in building trust early and extracting greater meaning from the experience for both mentee and mentor. Through weekly discussions, music, art, play, conversation, advice-giving, and self-reflection all promoted strong bond formation between students.