The EAL Mentoring Program: a Rewarding Experience by Lisa Dalgarno

The EAL (English as an additional language) mentorship program coordinated by Liza Choi is an amazing program. I am a third year student mentoring a first year student and I have to admit, I love it. We (my mentee and I) meet once a week for roughly an hour. We talk about various subjects and they are not always school or nursing related. Some of the things that are common for us to discuss are time management skill, studying methods, resources available through the school, and various other random topics. I have found that this program not only benefits the person I am mentoring, but myself as well. My mentee and I have formed a friendship through the EAL Mentoring Program.

Time Management

Managing one’s time can certainly be difficult in nursing. You have clinical practicums, care plans, and papers galore. Many students also work, or are parents and caretakers on top of that. It really is a handful and can be truly stressful. I speak for myself when I say this, but I find one of the biggest stressors in nursing is time management, especially in first year. This topic is an important discussion topic for my mentee and me. Every week we discuss what we have to complete by the next week and how we are going to manage that. I try to help the best I can, but I can only give tips. However, I am happy to say that my mentee confessed she finds my time management tips very helpful and that they have made exams and papers more manageable. I believe the biggest way that I have helped her is advising her to create a monthly calendar, and for each week have days for completing what needs to be accomplished that day while leaving one day a week free for self-care. I found that I have to remind my mentee weekly to care for herself.

Study Tips

Ugh… studying. It is probably the biggest stressor after time management. Trying to find an individualized studying method can be pretty difficult. This is another major topic mentioned weekly in our meetings. Studying can be overwhelming, especially when you look at the amount of material you have to study. Learning the most important information and finding an efficient way of studying may seem impossible at times. It can take years to discover how to study effectively. I often give tips to my mentee on what studying methods work best for me. She has found some to be useful and others not so helpful. It has helped that I have three years of studying for nursing under my belt. Over the last three years of nursing and after trying different things, I have picked up a few study tips along the way. Every week I try and help her with her studying and every week I try to help her with her studying and every week we try and think of different ways to study.

School Resources

Have you any idea how many resources are available through MRU? Neither do I. We work through this together. I know something about the financial aid centers, where to get free breakfasts, peer support centers, discounted massages. My mentee knows where to find help for her term papers, studying and other. Each week we talk about things that are causing us stress and we look for resources provided by the school that may help. We have both helped each other in this aspect. I was unaware of several resources she pointed me towards, and vice versa. Being two different people, we experience our similar nursing lives differently, so it is natural that we come to this issue in our own say. I found this topic provided us an opportunity to share and learn from each other.

What I have learnt

From my time in the EAL Mentoring Program, I have gained some insight into a different culture. We will sometimes discuss things from home, holidays, family and favourite vacation spots we enjoy. I must confess that when I started mentoring, I was horrible at understanding accents. In fact, I was downright awful at it. Considering we live in a multi-cultural city and country, it was embarrassing. I have improved so much in this area that now I don’t even notice accents. I am very thankful for this opportunity . I have been enriched by gaining a truer and deeper understanding of another culture and formed a friendship with which I can share our stress and understand the frustrations of school. I look forward to our meeting every week, even though coordinating schedules can be difficult. I would recommend this program to anyone, and I do.