My Mentoring Experience - Nikita, Kingsford School

Around 20 pupils, including myself, was chosen from Kingsford Community School to do a course for mentoring with lovelife generation. At first I was rather confused as I didn't know what this course entailed. As the sessions went on, it became clearer to me what it was about and I was learning something new each time. I can honestly say that I'm so happy I was one of the people chosen to have this experience and gain this qualification. We had to go to sessions every week for a certain period of time to learn about how to become a peer mentor. Each session got better and better as I got to know the people there. I had started to make friends with people I wasn't close with before. This gave me a chance to learn some socialising skills as we had to get very close very quickly. We had do to tasks where you would literally have to be holding hands with eachother while getting from one place to another. This required teamwork and in order for the teamwork to succeed we had to become comfortable around people

very easily. This was a very good skill to learn because there is times in life when you have to work with people you're not particularly close with. 

One of the best parts of the experience for me was meeting the two loveLife Generation trainers who were training us. Their names are Jasmine and Rukiyah. They both did such an amazing job at teaching us and keeping us entertained at the same time. I couldn't ask for better trainers because we had so much fun with them. They taught us all the skills we needed to know to become a good mentor and there was not one point in which I got bored at the sessions. We learnt so many skills that we would need in everyday life aswell and it was all down to the trainers. I'll forever be thankful for everything they taught me. 

I was always happy to go to the sessions because it took my mind off of the stress from school and it kept me relaxed throughout as there was always laughter going around the room. 

We learnt things like how to react in certain situations and how to reply in a certain way so that the mentee doesn't feel like they're being judged. We also learnt how to make people feel comfortable and how to get them to open up to you. The course also taught us boundaries and relationships that will be made with the mentee so that we known exactly where we stand with them. 

Mentoring was an amazing experience and I do recommend it to whoever's interested.

-By Nikita-Jade Mossman