Mentor Madness

Finding a mentor for my senior project has certainly been quite the journey. I spent two weeks constantly e-mailing language professors requests for becoming my mentor (mainly e-mailing those who teach on an elementary level since I feel like they would know the important factors that come into play when learning a language). Because of my change of topic, I was forced to start my senior project fresh. I needed to start from the very beginning of the whole senior project process and that was finding a mentor that could take me under their wing. Within the first three days of my little request rampage for a mentor, I received a couple of no's but I didn't let those rejections crush my spirit nor tenacity. I believed that I was bound to find a mentor soon considering the fact that I was reaching out to nearly 10 people at the time.

Five days pass; some professors rejected me once again and some didn't even bother to e-mail me back! I felt my heart break a little at he thought of professors ignoring my e-mails (even though it might be best that I didn't mentor with them. Their personalities were probably terrible if they didn't have the common courtesy to at least respond!).However, I am persistent.

Six days: No luck. I e-mail more.

Nine: Again, a sea of no's. I'm nearly reaching the point of desperate. Blog #6 revolves around our mentor and the due date for that assignment was slowing creeping in. Claire Dix messages me on Facebook later that night and we both freak out about how neither of us are even close to finding a mentor. We're girls so of course we worry together about our problems. As we continue to complain about the struggles of finding a mentor, Claire becomes my saving grace and gives me details on Lara McConaughey's mentor for her senior project that revolved around Linguistics. The professor Claire referred to me, Karen Roussikoff, taught a whole class on Language Acquisition so I thought she would be a very suitable mentor for my project. I e-mail the professor that night.

Ten: No response throughout the day. Oh no.

Eleven: ... Blog #6 was due the next day.

Twelve: Blog #6 was due. Claire and I were still mentor-less, thus we rant about our sorrows again over Facebook Message and try to decide on what to do with our little dilemma. However, just as we were complain about our struggles, I received an e-mail from Dr. Roussikoff that said she would be happy to become my mentor! What great timing; just before blog #6. I was able to write about my mentor in time for the due date of the sixth blog assignment and I met with Dr. Roussikoff the next week.

Honestly, I felt so relieved and blessed to officially have a mentor hours before the assignment was due. It's crazy how life works out and I just happen to be one of the lucky ones. Now that one nightmare is over, it's time to over come the rest. Everyone wish me luck.

A-dog out.

Here is a funny comic about first language acquisition in babies, a topic that Doctor Roussikoff will go into detail with me within my mentorship.

Blog 6 - Second Interview Preparation

1. Who is your mentor and where do they work?

• My mentor is Karen Russikoff, the professor of Second Language Acquisition classes at Cal Poly Pomona.

2. What five questions will you ask them about their background?

• What inspired you to teach your Second Language Acquisition class?
• What is the most important thing you have learned working at Cal Poly Pomona as a professor for Second Language Acquisition?
• How many languages do you speak? If you know multiple languages, what helped you learn them? What was the most beneficial approach you took in order to acquire those languages?
• Was Second Language Acquisition what you studied in college? If so, which classes did you find the most beneficial? If not, what did you initially study and what changed your mind?
• Why do you teach a class revolving around Second Language Acquisition in general as opposed to a language class (i.e. Elementary Spanish)?

Blog 5 - Mentorship and Research Reflection

1. Describe your experience in how you found your mentorship. If you haven't found one yet, describe your experience so far in the search of a mentor.

• Since I have changed my topic to something that doesn't pertain to what I did for the summer hours, I am still searching for a mentor that will help me with my senior project revolving around Language Acquisition. So far, I've e-mailed about ten language teachers at Mt. SAC for convenience, all of them teaching a language at the elementary level. Many of the teachers I have e-mailed have given me a reply yet. I kind of question if they ever opened up their inbox in the first place (which to me, foreshadows a bad mentor). To the one that has replied to me, Professor Salinger, I interviewed him for the interview component in order to test the waters.  a great guy, but I didn't feel like I would enjoy having him as my mentor. Our personalities didn't seem to click and I couldn't see myself working with him for a whole year, thus I decided to just interview him. I am still currently in the search for a mentor.

2. What has been your most important article you have read so far and why?

• I feel like the most important article I've read so far has been "Brain Development and Mastery of Language in the Early Childhood Years" by Elaine Shiver. It goes into great detail about what goes on within a child's brain as they live through their early childhood years, develop communication skills for first language acquisition, and try to learn a new language later on in life (more specifically once the child is 6 years old). This article also talks about why children are able to learn a new language faster and what periods of time should they learn a new language before that opportunity window closes off.