MentiFY – A Brand New Mentorship Program for First-Year Students

On August 28, 18 AUBG Sophomore students received an email about MentiFY. The brand new mentorship program for the first-year students was initiated by the Dean of Students Office, as many students felt alienated from others after the pandemic. The email was full of enthusiasm and referred to the future mentors as “active and engaged sophomores with specific valuable experiences.” 

Nur is a Freshman from Kyrgyzstan. He said that the program has just begun and has a lot of potential. “MentiFY is a very cool concept. It can help us to have more links with other students and be engaged in more events,” he said. 

When he was asked about his mentor, his awkward laugh was followed by some hesitance. Nur was reluctant to say anything negative, but finally admitted: “The problem is that my mentor does not care as much about the program as other mentors for instance.”

Nur shared that he has not done any activities as part of the program. “From my experience, if I were to evaluate my team, I would evaluate it negatively. But I have seen other groups and their mentors and I would say it is great,” he said. Nur then discussed why the program is not really popular among his peers. “The mentors should have been more prepared”, Nur added.

On the other hand, Kristiana, a Freshman from Bulgaria, was rather impressed with her mentor: “It is a cool thing because I felt really supported by my mentor and I still know that I can always contact her if I have any questions.” In terms of activities, they have not done anything specific since the orientation week: “But the mentor wrote us an email to remind us that if we have any concerns, we can always get in touch with her.” 

Kristiana also explained that many Freshmen do not talk about the program: “Because they were either late or did not come during the orientation week at all.” She then admitted that not everyone gave the program a chance. “Unfortunately, most of the opinions that I have heard are not positive,” she said. Kristiana said that some people from her group expressed their thoughts: “Why would we need a mentor? We have enough people to talk to if we need support.” 

According to Kristiana, part of the problem with some students is that they do not have the mindset to accept help. 

Rati, a Sophomore from Georgia, is one of the 18 mentors. He said: “MentiFY  is another layer of student support; something you can actually rely on.” Rati elaborated that the program is still in progress and has a lot of potential to be more efficient: “We are working on improving different aspects of MentiFY.  From next academic year current Freshmen will be able to mentor other students.”

When MentiFY started at the end of August, Rati felt like he was not really prepared for it: “Only after we went through training, did it all make more sense.” 

Rati said: “Keeping in touch with the mentees is the trickiest part.” He has office hours and has shared his social media addresses as well. However, MentiFY is not mandatory, therefore he understands that some people may just decide not to show up.

Rati admitted that a lot of people may be skeptical of the program because it is new. Yet, he seemed positive about the future of the MentiFY and concluded: “I believe it will gain more popularity. It just needs time to consolidate.”