Mentoring in a Minute - Tip #1 - Is your office student - Friendly?

Mentoring on the Run consists of a lot of very simple techniques. So faculty should look at how their offices are set up, but from the standpoint of students. So, one of the small steps would be rearranging your office to make it more student-friendly. When a student walks into the room, what do they see? You know, if a student sees, like, the desk physically separating themselves from the faculty, then the meeting is going to take on a much more formal atmosphere. A second thing is when a student comes into the office, especially if a student is visiting you for the first time, it's always a good idea to stand up and actually physically greet the student, shake their hand. If you shake hands with the students, they're actually going to feel more friendly and welcomed in the office. Think also about, like, what you have on the walls or on the desk. I have in my office a lot of, like, photos of students, former students, current students, as well as student work. You know, so, whenever a student comes into my office for the first time those are the things that they usually look at, and they usually see somebody that they know. So that that creates a much more comfortable atmosphere for a student meeting with you for the first time. So, Mentoring on the Run consists of a lot of small kinds of like things, but the key is looking at your office from the standpoint of a student and not from the standpoint of you as a faculty.