Alex, the College of Education Learning Community Mentor

“I love what I do! It's very rewarding to know that you are helping people during a difficult transition. Much better than my job at McDonald’s,” Alex reveals. Alex Melchert is a caring, kind, curly haired, bright eyed, intelligent student. Being a Learning Community (LC) mentor for The College of Education (COE) at Bloomsburg University is just one more thing you can add to the list of marvelous things about Alex.  The learning community is an inclusive environment where students in the same major are offered different learning opportunities inside and outside of the classroom.  A mentor is a person who has a few people in their group as his or her mentees. There are 54 mentees in the COE LC, but Alex has 11 individuals in her group. Alex informed me that her favorite part about being a mentor is "getting to know new people and making connections that lead to wonderful friendships." Alex mentioned that the reason she wanted to become a mentor was because the  mentor she had last year wasn't good. She wanted to be the best mentor for her mentees.

This is Alex and her mentees.

Alex and her fellow mentees last year.

 A normal day for Alex can be very busy, which isn’t hard to guess. Balancing a job, being a mentor,  doing school work, and having a social life can be a very difficult thing to do. She tells me that her day “mainly consists of checking her planner every 5 minutes to make sure she didn’t miss a meeting,” which is believable because the LC has many meetings and activities, as well as one on one meetings with a mentor and a mentee, one of which was observed and will be talked about later. “Other than that, I am cooking or doing homework in my apartment,” she adds.  

Alex at an LC paint event last year.

One of the many questions people ask when someone brings up a LC mentor is  “What do they get paid?” Alex informed me that it is minimum wage. She mentioned that she didn’t become a mentor for the money, but only because she thought it’d be a good experience. I don’t think anyone would do it solely for the money because they only make minimum wage, and they don’t get many hours. 

 I had observed Alex during one of her one on one meetings with a mentee. She asked so many questions, some of them being “How are you doing?” and “How are your classes going?” You can truly tell that she takes her job seriously and she cares about who she works with. The conversation was very professional, and Alex was very considerate of how her mentee was doing. After all of the necessities were talked about, they talked about other things that interest them. The conversation ranged from movies, music, and even food. You could tell that the mentee and Alex were having a really good time just sitting down and chatting with one another. It was a great thing to see Alex be professional and do her job, but also become a friend as well. 

Many people that enter the learning community get along so well with their mentor, that they eventually look at them as a role model and inspiration. Then they too want to become a mentor themselves. Alex spoke about what the qualifications are and what the application process is like to become a mentor. “The application process consists of a bunch of short answer questions about ideas and opinions about the LC and then there is an interview with Dr. Young.” It's a pretty easy process, but they look for good qualities in you that they expect you to have. Alex mentions that the qualities are being willing to put in the time and heart into your job. You must have the drive to do it, and especially enjoy what you do. 

“I’ve made so many friends from working with the LC. Not only have I met some awesome mentees, but I've become friends with some amazing mentors as well.” Being an LC mentor is no easy task, and it can become very stressful. But, if you have the same drive and ambition that Alex has, you can go very far with it. Making friends and helping people are two of the prodigious things about being at college. You can make it worthwhile, if you have the heart.