By Meng Li
It is my honor and pleasure to share my experience in the global mentor program with everyone here. I am currently not active in the program. But I had been in the program for six semesters. I became a mentor the second semester of my freshman year when the program was first launched. Thanks Wendy for inviting me back to give this speech. I’d like to share with you how I grew with the program and how much I appreciate about the program.
What do you remember when you first came here? When I first came here, my flight from New York to Middletown was canceled without notifying me by email or messaging. The next flight was 12 hours later and the airline put me on the standby list. Honestly, I didn’t even know what the standby list meant. Finally, I got the seat for sure and the flight was delayed again. I was carrying three luggage bags because my parents literally helped me pack everything. Eventually, I arrived in the Middletown airport and it was midnight. Luckily, there were taxis waiting in the parking garage. I was trying to tell the driver my address yet he couldn’t understand me because of my accent. What’s even worse is that he spoke so fast and I had no clue what he said. I tried to spell the address or say it really slow. Finally, It occurred to me that I should just write it down. That works. I was so exhausted when I get to my apartment and had a good night sleep. The next morning, when I woke up, I realized that I had skin allergy that my cheek were so reddish. Neither of my roommates nor I had allergy pills. I didn’t have insurance at that time, and I didn’t know what to do. Two days later, after the orientation, I went to the health service and the nursed help me. After going through all of this, I really wished I could have had someone there who could tell me what to do. Then I would have known it was not necessary to bring that much luggage. Or someone could have directed me to riteaid or cvs for allergy pills or visit the school health service. If your mentors got in touch with you before you arrived and were always there when you needed help, please give them an applause. They really make your transition to college much easier than you could imagine. My experience was my motivation to join the program. I hope new students wouldn’t need to go through everything I had.
I can still clearly remember the first time I saw Patty, who started this program. It was at a first year seminar; Patty handed out surveys to ask international students if they receive adequate support and what kind of support they would like to have. I am not sure if the survey led to the program. But I remember her, I know she is a person who cares about international students and who wants to make a difference. I joined the program with a few international students. We shared common goals: to make friends, and to help others. But nobody knew exactly how we could achieve these goals. We didn’t have a standard procedure, not enough budgets, and not enough people in the program. We had nothing but our passion. Patty put so much effort and created everything from nothing. Without her, this program would not even exist. This is her last semester; please give her applause and best wishes to her. Anna, Donna and so many other people inside or outside the international office devote their time to help the program grow. Please be grateful for everything we have here, the funding, the community volunteers and all the resources we have.
I didn’t have much social life before I joined the program. I was the traditional type of Asian, studying all the time. Joining the program opened a new world for me and expanded my horizon. I received so much good advice and help from other mentors. Sabira encouraged me to join different clubs. By talking to people in the clubs and attending different events, I was able to decide my major. Sabira also helped me to land my first internship in the U.S. Eventually, all my experience led me to my dream job. Jennifer would always give me a ride on snow days back to the time when I didn’t have a car. She recommended that I join the honors program, and apply for scholarships. I couldn’t imagine who I would be without joining this program, without the support from these friends. Although I was technically a mentor from the very beginning, I was lucky to have all other mentors as my friends, family and mentors. They shaped my view of a mentor and I had been trying to become a good mentor just like them. I really want to thank all the mentors here. What you are doing is not just attending social activities and making friends. You can make a difference in someone’s life.
The most important lesson I learned from my experience is being a mentor just simply means I have something to offer to share with others. It doesn’t mean I have to know everything and I should always learn something new from my mentees. I shared my first travel experience to Penn State and it wasn’t a good experience. Coincidentally, I met my first mentee at the Middletown airport and she wasn’t even my mentee at that time. I happened to be at the airport, seeing a friend off. The international advisor was going to pick up a new international student but she couldn’t get in contact with her or leaving her car to find her. So she asked me for help. And by the time I saw the new student, Lily, she was siting there trying to connect with airport Wi-Fi with three luggage bags in front of her. She seemed lost and worried. I looked at her and felt I was looking at myself. I walked to her and started the conversation with her. After our interaction, she applied to be my mentee. I shared with her how to get a phone, where to find textbooks, show her around campus and took her to the grocery store. On the other hand, she helped me so much for my organic chemistry class. I am a business major who also thought to be good in chemistry. And it turned out I was wrong. So I really struggled with this class but didn’t want to give up. She was a pre-med student and she spent a lot of time studying with me and helped me get through the class. I am currently volunteering in preparing tax returns with one of my mentees, Ye. Although I have been in the volunteering program for three years, I learned so much from her. She is so detail-orientated and eager to absorb the knowledge. She would sit next to the person who reviews her tax return to make sure she did the tax return correctly or learn from the mistakes. I get so used to the tax returns. Sometimes, I don’t think too much about the reasons behind each entry. I just simply do it. When she had any questions, she would research on it and get to the bottom of the problem. Even though I am the mentor, my mentees taught me so much.
I believe the success of this program comes from all the mentors and mentees. How many of you here are currently a mentor and was a mentee before? I know a lot of mentees become mentors because they received so much support from their mentors and wanted to give back to the program. This has become the tradition of this program and is being passed down. Even after Patty and all of the people who started the program graduate, I truly believe the program will still grow and become more successful because of all of you here.