Updates...thoughts..etc.

Hey Luke,

Thanks for keeping me in the loop! It looks like you guys ahve made excellent progress! I bet you have already thought of most of this, but these were ideas that I had as I was going through the documents.

Regarding the meeting on the 12th:
>>It all looks pretty good and I would say that most of my comments deal with the chart and your timeline! I would say that an additional goal for the first six/seven months would be for the mentoring scheme show some definitive benefits for the University, staff, and students involved. This would help provide further incentive for the programs to continue! The website is essential! It can also provide a place to put resources for mentors such as tips, handouts, strategies, training, etc.

Mentor Action Plan:
>>Under the "website" > Create Content for website, possibly include resources that would have strategies, tips, possibly training features - this part could be added at a later date though. You could also have the mentoring schemesfeatured once they are set up. For example if the journalism scheme gets started then have the contact information for the program, times and places they meet (if they meet outside of class), mentor bios, etc.
>>Under "Identify," I would also have an application process available for interested students. That way staff can suggest students who would be good and self-motivated students can also apply.
>>Under "Applications," I know you have training later on in the process, but perhaps you could mention in the application process that training will be required from CELT or from the department or programme. I know evaluation is looked at later, but also it could be mentioned that evaulation will also be part of participating in the mentoring scheme.
>>I would make the date for submission fairly quick, but it depends on how many schemes that you guys are trying to luanch for this term. The more you want, the longer I would make the date for submission.
Under the "applications," I would also favor appliactions stemming from programmes that experiences poor retention rates, which I think you mentioned earlier in the meeting mintues.
>>I would also be tempted to get a variety of appliaction from all over the university. So basically, I would want an app;;laiction for the journalism school, nursing school, and engineering school rather than all the journalism school. I think this would help promote the mentoring scheme as more university wide rather than department specific and more applicable to everyone.
>>Under CELT > "Development" - I like the publicizing stuff, that is really good. I think under the eavulaution, you could also look at grades from pervious terms to see the difference...hopefully there would be some. It would also be great to get videos/testimonials at this point to use in future marketing. I also do not know if CELT would be responsible of some of the training, but they could provide generic training as far as what do do in emergencies, different teaching strategies, or even just break out sessions so that different mentors can exchange ideas with one another. This is similar to what you were staying with the bulletins and having the mentor of the week stuff. I think that during some of those meetings with mentors and staff, you can have informal feedback where they offer suggestions on what can be done differently, better, or any new ideas to apply to the mentoring schemes.
>>I do think that some training from the specific school is necessaryy because of the specific content looked at.
>>Under "celebration," I freaking love this idea. This provides good PR for the future and rewards the mentors and the staff. I would perhaps let the participating mentoring schemes know that this was happening at the beginning of the term and maybe even inform them of criteria for the award so that they have something to work towards.
>>At the end of the July period, lots of feedback would be nice to refine the program to make more decisions regarding ratining, promtion, expansion, etc.

I hope that helps and I bet you have thought of most of that already. Let me know if there is anything I can do or develop. I would be more than happy to help! (I kind of wish I was there helping...)

Thanks!

Kirk

PS I apologize for typos, grammatical errors etc...haha