The Intergenerational Mentoring Program

During my freshmen year at Miami, I joined the Miami Student Education Association (MSEA), which is a pre-professional organization for students who are entering the education field. As a result of this membership, I have been a part of the National Education Association and the Ohio Education Association ever since.

During my sophomore year, I decided to take advantage of a program that is offered as a result of my membership with MSEA that is called the Intergenerational Mentoring Program (IGM). In this program, students are paired with retired teachers who mentor them and guide them as they begin the early stages of their teaching careers.

In my first year with IGM, I was placed with a retired high school social studies teacher and we would occasionally meet for lunch in Oxford and attend the IGM meetings together. We formed a bond that was helpful to me as I was just starting to figure out what my life would look like as I became a teacher.

As I began my second year with IGM, my first mentor moved away, so I was placed with a new mentor and another student. In some cases, mentors will have multiple mentees, and this was the situation that I found myself in last year.

At the banquet, each senior was given a journal
(titled as the one above) with their name on it,
in addition to a yellow rose.

The three of us would meet for lunch and would attend events together, and it was nice to have two other people to bounce ideas off of. While my mentor and the other student are early childhood educators, so it was a bit different for me, I still have appreciated having that bond.

The other student that was paired with my mentor and I graduated in December, and since we were both student teaching last semester, it was difficult for the three of us to meet. However, my mentor and I were able to meet for dinner during my student teaching experience, and we still meet for lunch in Oxford on occasion.

Each year, IGM has a banquet at the end of the year to celebrate the program and recognize graduating seniors. The banquet was this past Monday, and I had the honor of speaking on behalf of all the mentees.

MSEA and IGM have provided me with a support system of future and retired educators who have helped guide me on this path to becoming a teacher. I’m so glad that I decided to join both of these groups early on at Miami, and I would encourage all education majors to do the same.