Training for Scientists:  Guiding an Apprentice

The New England Aquarium and COSEE-NE hosted a 3-hour training session for scientist-participants in a pilot Teen Apprenticeship Program on June 5, 2007.  Mass Mentoring Partnership trainer Marty Martinez led a group of Aquarium staff in a series of discussions, brainstorming, and exercises to introduce all to the idea of mentoring, its relationship to supervising, and communications and other skills that will serve scientists well when working with teens.  An excerpt from the training follows:

Communicating with teens

Adapted from www.advocatesforyouth.org by Mass Mentoring Partnership

Communicating with teenagers can be challenging.  Although most teens seem quite adept at communicating with their peers, talking to adults can be a somewhat different experience.  For adults working with teenagers, learning a little about teens and remembering your own attitudes and experiences as a teenager can help make communication less frustrating and allow open discussions.  Here are 10 tips:

    1. Listen
    2. Don't judge
    3. Pay attention to language
    4. Have respect for teens' ideas
    5. Sometimes compromise is necessary
    6. Show care and concern
    7. Learn to read nonverbal clues
    8. Appreciate
    9. Clarify, paraphrase
    10. Stick with it!

 

Roles and tasks for a workplace mentor

A mentor is:

  • A trusted guide.
  • A caring, responsible adult who provides access to people, places, and things outside their mentee's routine environment.
  • A positive role model.
  • A resource broker, not fixing a problem but instead pointing the teen toward resources.
  • A good listener, persistent, committed, and patient.
  • Open-minded, and appreciative of differences.

A mentor is not:

  • A parent or legal guardian -- and should be careful not to conflict with messages from home.
  • A social worker.
  • A psychologist.
  • An ATM.