In my mentorship, I have learned many valuable concepts. Number one would be self-awareness. My mentor provided me with many different job areas and people from each of them to meet with and spend some time with. Most of the time, he let me set up meeting times and locations, so I had to be very timely and self-aware to remember when and where I was meeting different professionals in various related fields. Another topic that I had to teach myself was public speaking. My mentorship has made me grow in this art because of all the different people that I came into contact with. Granted I was never a terribly self-conscience person, but public speaking is always a topic that I can become better at.
This has prepared me for the future is ways that I never thought were possible. I have been able to sit down and ride around with so many different professionals in so many different fields that I feel like I have benefited more than other people in the program because I got to be witness to almost all of the possible career fields that I can choose to go into. Even just going to college next year, I will have been able to see the different topics that might be discussed in my Environmental Engineering classes for many years to come. To go off of the public speaking knowledge I have gained, I will have a leg up on other people in the Environmental Engineering degree program when it comes to internship or co-ops. I am become much more comfortable in front of people than I would be if I was not in this mentorship.
The number one piece of advice that I could give to future HMP students would be to let your mentor, mentor you. There is a reason why your mentor allowed you to come to their job site every week. They want to show you want they do, and all we need to do is let them. All of the mentors in this program love what they do and are very willing to show us all their job has to offer. Another piece of advice would be to turn in your logs and all assignments on time. They will come back to bite you in the butt if you do not stay on top of your game.
"Environmental Engineering." Occupational Outlook Handbook. Department of Labor, n.d. Web. 7 May
2017.
