Interview
Questions for Ceara Hodierne
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Introduction – Can you please state your name and faculty?
My name is Ceara Hodierne, I am studying Nursing
Adult DipHE.
•
Why did you get involved with the scheme?
I wanted to be a
student academic mentor for several reasons: firstly because I am due to qualify in September and one of the
desirable requirements for a staff nurse is to have mentoring experience which
I knew would be achieved throough succesful completion of this post, therefore
I knew that being a Student Academic Mentor would make me more employable.
Secondly, I was excited to get involved with a scheme that allowed me to
combine my Nursing with my passion for teaching. Thirdly, the memories of being a student not
knowing exactly what to do and feeling as though I had been thrown into the
deep end therefore I wanted to be there to prevent students from feeling that
way or supporting them if they do. Lastly, I was looking for an additional form
of employment.
•
How have you found working on the scheme so far?
Originally I found that the BCU didn't have much
direction for us with regards to what they wanted us to do, therefore the
primary challenge of working on the scheme was to identify areas of the university
where students lacked support and create a demand for our service. This was an
interesting challenge that made the experience of actually supporting students
more wothwhile because I had worked hard to identify where help was needed,
implemented the help and received postive feedback. It has been an enjoyable
expeirence work as a team to create resources and plan sessions and I have
found that I have been able to develop
key organisation and communication skills .
•
How has the relationship with your staff partner been?
I have received lots of support when I have asked
for it.
•
How has the relationship with your mentees been?
The mentees appear to be very comfortable
approaching me in sessions and through email. They have been responsive to my
feedback and grateful for the extra support, especially when councilling
students on a one to one basis.
•
Can you briefly describe some of the things you have been doing?
As stated above I have needed to identify where
there was a demand for the Student Academic Service therefore I have been
corresponding with lots of different members of staff within the Personal
Development Department, Numeracy Support, the head of the Mahara E-Learning
Portfolio programme and various other staff. From that I have been given the
task of possibly creating new practise papers for the numeracy exams, I have a
meeting with the head of Numeracy to discuss how much he wants me to be
involved with numeracy. I have assisted with the development of materials and
resources to support students with Mahara, attended meetings in order to
coordinate the Mahara support and have succesfully completed a Mahara drop in session
and I am currently working on organising further sessions. I have also assisted
students with Mahara queries which has included them emailing my student
account with questions and I have responded to them with both the answers and
helpful guides and information for them to read.
I plan to attend my old senior school with the
university to encourage the student their to undertake Nursing as a career and
to explain to them what the course entails and what achievements I have gained
from the course. I am due to support one of the members of staff with a new
online resource where I will be testing it for the new students.
•
What difficulties have you come across so far?
Creating a demand for our service, it has
required iniatiative and investigation but it has made the outcome more
rewarding.
•
Do you feel that you have helped students?
Definitly, I have had some excellent feedback
from students.
•
How have you gone about planning your sessions?
By meeting with my fellow mentors to coordinate
the materials and resources, meeting with the mentors before our Mahara session
to plan what information we can give, it what format, style etc. Due to the
fact that our first student contact was a drop in session we couldn't really
plan the session as the help we would be providing the students would be based
upon their individual needs however we did decide that we were going to
approach the students on an individual basis and rather than answering their questions
or completing a Mahara activity for them, we would instead give them the
helpful resources we had created and give them the oppertunity to do it
themselves.
•
What resources have you used?
Internet, Mahara, email, posters and forums.
•
What are you most proud of?
Our first Mahara drop in session, we released the
email on Thursday to say that there would be a session the following Monday and
ten people attended the session and left having achieved a goal such as
submitting a Mahara page, identifying what needed to be achieved on each Mahara
page or completing a personal development plan. It was particuarly satisfying
to see a session that we had created resources for, that we had planned, that
we had advertised and that we had run be so succesful.
•
Is there anything you can think of to help improve the scheme?
No.
•
Has your attitude towards University life changed since becoming part
of the scheme?
Yes, you don't realise how much support is
available to students until you become part of the team trying to make students
aware of it and encouraging them to ask it.
Thank you for taking your time out to answer all
these questions.
Regards,
The StAMP team.
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