Innovation in empathy-centred peer mentorship
Last week I stepped back from leading the UTS Business Mentors program, after almost 8 years. While I can't help to feel sadness, it's time for me to begin scripting a new chapter of PhD research in the US at Yale, and later in Japan and India.
As cliché as it sounds, it has been an incredible journey.
I remember back in 2014 when Stephen Schweinsberg spoke about the need for student support in his subject, Integrating Business Perspectives. It was pre-monsoon season in Mumbai, where I'd spent a year trying to understand 'empathy'. While I sweltered under oppressive heat, I felt inspired to return to UTS to pursue the idea of peer-relationships centred on empathy. Indeed, it might empower a flourishing community of student leaders, meaningful mentor-mentee relationships, and help people reach their potential as learners and as humans.
We went about developing a program with a small initial cohort (Kristine, Dominic, Gabrielle, Chelsea, Rachel, Nicole et al - true stars for jumping into the deep-end!). It seems normal now, though embedding peer mentors within tutorials was a new idea at the time. With faculty support (thanks Stephen, Chris Bajada, Chris Burton, Sara Denize and many tutors and staff - Nancy, Kerry, and others!), we created a community of over 800 student mentors, teaching empathy-based theories and methods to over 15,000 first-year university students.
A few key learnings for a successful mentor program:
anyone can be an incredible mentor with the right motivations
a holistic relational sense of empathy is fundamental (not tokenistic 'empathy-washing')
using an empathy lens at all stages i.e. program culture, mentor selection and training, student pedagogy, purposefully design mentor experience, and program leadership
volunteers are committed to meaningful causes they can impact
people still highly value human-to-human connections
There's more nuanced learnings, but for another time.
I'm excited by many new developments this year, thanks to support from Sara and Carl Rhodes. We expanded the program with Amanda White & Nelson Ma's 'Accounting and Accountability' and Simone Grabowski-Faulkner & Charles Onjumi’s 'People and Organisations'. And soon trialling 1-on-1 mentorship to support deeper mentor-mentee connections and teach advanced relational skills.
While I step aside, I couldn't be more thrilled to have Ken Wu taking the reins - as a mentor himself reached a shared (Tiffany Tran) record of 8 semesters. Ken embodies key elements of empathy, along with incredible passion, energy, and commitment to lead UTS Business Mentors towards new heights. Meanwhile, I'll maintain a strong connection with UTS, initially mentoring Ken and later seeking to research mentor program dynamics. There's so much to the mentorship story that needs to be told!
Finally, none of this would have been possible without the support from student mentors over the years. I will forever be grateful for the kindness, selflessness, trust, and respect everyone has given me. Indeed, it is perhaps I who have learnt the most from this program. It's become a fundamental part of who I am and the research I now pursue... that people from all walks-of-life have the potential for empathy and that learning about empathy can positively change lives. You all inspire me to keep pushing boundaries towards empathy as a foundation of flourishing organisations and societies.
First image: "Nathan" by UTS Business Mentor, Shinuo Hu.
