UW Mentors go virtual in pandemic in working with students of color, low-income students
Zoom-work means less body language, sure, but it's easier to share resources
By Kimmy Li
UW Dream Project’s mission is to support students of color and low-income students through mentorship in navigating complex systems such as the workforce, financial aid, and college admissions. Mentors provide students with the tools, information, and resources needed to prepare them for their futures.
Undergraduate juniors at the University of Washington talk about the transition from in-person mentorship to virtual mentorship.
“Students have been less engaged than they were in person,” said Rasaretnam, a high school lead with the Dream Project. “The difficulty of replicating the online format to be similar to the in person format is a difficult task.”
With the current situation of the pandemic, remote mentorship has supported these students in working together with mentors to enact a plan for their futures.
But there are still limited parameters.
Undergraduate juniors at the University of Washington talk about the transition from in-person mentorship to virtual mentorship.
“Students have been less engaged than they were in person,” said Rasaretnam, a high school lead with the Dream Project. “The difficulty of replicating the online format to be similar to the in person format is a difficult task.”
With the current situation of the pandemic, remote mentorship has supported these students in working together with mentors to enact a plan for their futures.
But there are still limited parameters.
Meet the High School Leads of UW Dream Project
Undergraduates at the University of Washington mentor high-school students at local partner schools with post-secondary planning every quarter. With the remote setting, the high school leads are mentors who lead other mentors and contact the point-of-contact at these high schools.
High school leads, Sophie Tanchoco and Rhiannon Rasaretnam, share their experiences with in-person and virtual mentorship. I talked to them about the challenges that they’ve encountered, the engagement of the students, and how they rate last year’s transition process.
Undergraduates at the University of Washington mentor high-school students at local partner schools with post-secondary planning every quarter. With the remote setting, the high school leads are mentors who lead other mentors and contact the point-of-contact at these high schools.
High school leads, Sophie Tanchoco and Rhiannon Rasaretnam, share their experiences with in-person and virtual mentorship. I talked to them about the challenges that they’ve encountered, the engagement of the students, and how they rate last year’s transition process.
Sophie Tanchoco feels your pain
Sophie Tanchoco is a first-generation college student at UW. Just three years ago, she was roaming the hallways of Renton High School, one of UW Dream’s Project’s partner sites. She was a high school senior at that time planning out her post secondary plans.
Starting on her personal statement was a new territory for her. With empty hands, she sought support from mentors of Dream Project in her advisory class. An hour passed and ideas were flowing for her first draft. “After that day, I knew that if I was going to go to UW, I wanted to join the Dream Project,” Tanchoco says.
Since then Tanchoco has been a mentor with Dream Projects starting in her sophomore year and now holding a position as a high school lead. From being a mentee to a High School lead, she shares her experiences with other high school students.
“It’s really rewarding to know that I was in their position a couple years ago,” Tanchoco said. In her beginning days of in-person mentorship, she traveled in a Prius or van to her school site of Renton High School, a place filled with memorable high school memories. Tanchoco says that in-person mentorship was very fun with being able to meet the students. She supported them with navigating post-secondary plans and made the content engaging for them.
As a high school lead, she would be assigned to a classroom with two or three other mentors. She would give presentations and then walk around the classroom answering any questions. “I feel like it’s definitely more interactive in person,” she says.
In the transition period to virtual mentorship when the pandemic started in March 2020, there were many challenges. The process of navigating Zoom and contacting everyone by email was a struggle. Towards the beginning, it began with making videos every week. She would be making the videos and sending it to the point of contact at the schools to show students. It was a time where there wasn’t much interaction with the students.
Two quarters later, starting April 2021, things took a turn when live virtual mentorship became more engaging. Tanchoco says that the sessions have been more structured and productive with the online format with one student being assigned to two or three mentors in a breakout room. “It’s a comfortable space for them to talk about anything,” she says.
But there are still cons. For some students that Tanchoco mentors, accessibility to technology is a challenge. Not everyone has a stable connection to the Internet or a working Webcam. Blank screens are what she sees every week, so there is a missing face-to-face interaction. “I would prefer in-person mentorship”, Tanchoco said.
Tanchoco says the Dream Project was the first step that allowed her to pursue education. “ My experience has definitely boosted or influenced my career path, Tanchoco says. Stepping away from the STEM major, she discovered her interests aligned with her current major, Education, Communities, and Organizations. For now, she is giving presentations to high school seniors at Rainier Beach High School and still mentoring students virtually every Thursday.
Sophie Tanchoco is a first-generation college student at UW. Just three years ago, she was roaming the hallways of Renton High School, one of UW Dream’s Project’s partner sites. She was a high school senior at that time planning out her post secondary plans.
Starting on her personal statement was a new territory for her. With empty hands, she sought support from mentors of Dream Project in her advisory class. An hour passed and ideas were flowing for her first draft. “After that day, I knew that if I was going to go to UW, I wanted to join the Dream Project,” Tanchoco says.
Since then Tanchoco has been a mentor with Dream Projects starting in her sophomore year and now holding a position as a high school lead. From being a mentee to a High School lead, she shares her experiences with other high school students.
“It’s really rewarding to know that I was in their position a couple years ago,” Tanchoco said. In her beginning days of in-person mentorship, she traveled in a Prius or van to her school site of Renton High School, a place filled with memorable high school memories. Tanchoco says that in-person mentorship was very fun with being able to meet the students. She supported them with navigating post-secondary plans and made the content engaging for them.
As a high school lead, she would be assigned to a classroom with two or three other mentors. She would give presentations and then walk around the classroom answering any questions. “I feel like it’s definitely more interactive in person,” she says.
In the transition period to virtual mentorship when the pandemic started in March 2020, there were many challenges. The process of navigating Zoom and contacting everyone by email was a struggle. Towards the beginning, it began with making videos every week. She would be making the videos and sending it to the point of contact at the schools to show students. It was a time where there wasn’t much interaction with the students.
Two quarters later, starting April 2021, things took a turn when live virtual mentorship became more engaging. Tanchoco says that the sessions have been more structured and productive with the online format with one student being assigned to two or three mentors in a breakout room. “It’s a comfortable space for them to talk about anything,” she says.
But there are still cons. For some students that Tanchoco mentors, accessibility to technology is a challenge. Not everyone has a stable connection to the Internet or a working Webcam. Blank screens are what she sees every week, so there is a missing face-to-face interaction. “I would prefer in-person mentorship”, Tanchoco said.
Tanchoco says the Dream Project was the first step that allowed her to pursue education. “ My experience has definitely boosted or influenced my career path, Tanchoco says. Stepping away from the STEM major, she discovered her interests aligned with her current major, Education, Communities, and Organizations. For now, she is giving presentations to high school seniors at Rainier Beach High School and still mentoring students virtually every Thursday.
Rhiannon Rasaretnam wasn’t a huge Zoom fan at first either
Rhiannon Rasaretnam is an International Studies major at UW. She began her journey as a high school lead winter quarter of her freshman year. At her high school, it was only focused on college being the only option, and any other options was seen as an unsuccessful path.“ So I really appreciate the emphasis that Dream Project put on talking about post-secondary pathways,” she says.
For her in-person experience, her first school site was Rainier Beach. On Thursdays, she would drive to the school and split up in classrooms with other mentors and present presentations to the mentees.
Transitioning to spring quarter online when the pandemic first began was a difficult time. She says that zoom links were sent out to schools for drop-in mentoring, but one student came in that quarter. “That went terribly because as you can imagine, like no one really wanted to do any more than they had to I think during the whole time, because each week, we would have the link open for an hour,”Rasaretnam says. “And there's also tech issues just because everyone was just navigating zoom.”
Going forward for the following two quarters, staff re-evaluated mentorship online and decided to create videos. For Rasaretnam, she said that these were the disconnected times between mentor and students.
More recently, one year later, this spring quarter, the live mentorship sessions began again. This time it was more statured and coordinated. “It’s a little bit easier to share resources, although now I think now that we've all gone through this process, creating sessions like these will be easier in the future, even when we do in person mentorship again,” she says.
The virtual disconnect and tech issues are factors that she says hinders the overall engagements. For her, online mentorship makes it easier to prepare resources to send out to the students. But overall, she sees more value in-person mentorship. “There’s a lot of body language missing as well,” she says.
“Students have been less engaged than they were in person,” Rasaretnam says. The difficulty of replicating the online format to be similar to the in person format is a difficult task.
Rasartnam had mentioned that in-person, students were given snacks and drinks as incentives to come to the mentorship sessions. Since then, “it has been harder to get that sort of incentive,” she says.
As mentorship may soon be gradually transitioning back to in-person, there will be constant reevaluating. Rasaratnam is still currently optimistic about the future of mentorship through Dream Project.” And I'm sure it's gonna change, you know, from year to year, in the future," she says. “So, again, I guess it'll be nice when something lands and we figure out the perfect balance of everything.”
Rhiannon Rasaretnam is an International Studies major at UW. She began her journey as a high school lead winter quarter of her freshman year. At her high school, it was only focused on college being the only option, and any other options was seen as an unsuccessful path.“ So I really appreciate the emphasis that Dream Project put on talking about post-secondary pathways,” she says.
For her in-person experience, her first school site was Rainier Beach. On Thursdays, she would drive to the school and split up in classrooms with other mentors and present presentations to the mentees.
Transitioning to spring quarter online when the pandemic first began was a difficult time. She says that zoom links were sent out to schools for drop-in mentoring, but one student came in that quarter. “That went terribly because as you can imagine, like no one really wanted to do any more than they had to I think during the whole time, because each week, we would have the link open for an hour,”Rasaretnam says. “And there's also tech issues just because everyone was just navigating zoom.”
Going forward for the following two quarters, staff re-evaluated mentorship online and decided to create videos. For Rasaretnam, she said that these were the disconnected times between mentor and students.
More recently, one year later, this spring quarter, the live mentorship sessions began again. This time it was more statured and coordinated. “It’s a little bit easier to share resources, although now I think now that we've all gone through this process, creating sessions like these will be easier in the future, even when we do in person mentorship again,” she says.
The virtual disconnect and tech issues are factors that she says hinders the overall engagements. For her, online mentorship makes it easier to prepare resources to send out to the students. But overall, she sees more value in-person mentorship. “There’s a lot of body language missing as well,” she says.
“Students have been less engaged than they were in person,” Rasaretnam says. The difficulty of replicating the online format to be similar to the in person format is a difficult task.
Rasartnam had mentioned that in-person, students were given snacks and drinks as incentives to come to the mentorship sessions. Since then, “it has been harder to get that sort of incentive,” she says.
As mentorship may soon be gradually transitioning back to in-person, there will be constant reevaluating. Rasaratnam is still currently optimistic about the future of mentorship through Dream Project.” And I'm sure it's gonna change, you know, from year to year, in the future," she says. “So, again, I guess it'll be nice when something lands and we figure out the perfect balance of everything.”