Clemence Mendoza

Education 401 G
Final Reflection Essay
June 5, 2015
Bill1 showed me another side of the university as an international student that I have
never experienced personally nor given much thought to. Although entering the UW I did not
really know anyone, I quickly found a group of friends (I credit this partly to the UW Honors
program) with which I could study or at the very least consult with for any troubles I
encountered. Bill did not have quite the support system that I did, and this can be a major
disadvantage when it comes to the ultra-competitive intro series science classes. Part of his
difficulty could result from adjusting to the way that the biology classes test; thus I advised him
to try forming a biology study group to review with every week. He eventually did end up
attempting to make one; unfortunately, the people that he had approached were not as zealous
about study group work and thus this fell apart around the 6th or 7th week of the quarter. It was
really discouraging to see he had such a negative first experience with a study group but
hopefully he will be able to try again next quarter with better luck. On a more positive note, I
was really inspired when Bill told me at the end of the quarter that one of the most important
things he has learned these past few weeks is that he should be open to more than one right
answer in biology- I could not agree more with this! He reminded me that part of the reason that
I love biology is because we are continually finding more and more information about how the
world works, and overturning previous ideas for new ones based on evidence that emerges. I was
really happy to see that he was realizing that he can come up with many answers for/approaches
to a given question using previous and new knowledge.

1 Name changed to protect the identity of the student.

Overall I thought our first meeting went smoothly, we were able to establish some goals
for the quarter but the only source of difficulty was from conflicting schedule times in trying to
set the regular session times. The expectations seemed to be clear to my mentee from the
beginning as well. I think in the future I might start off with more structured sessions so that my
mentee might get used to a given structure and maybe adapt that structure when I start to fade out
and the mentee takes more control over the sessions later on in the quarter. Even though the main
focus of my mentee was Biology, having a set structure to each session so that the first hour was
for Biology and the last 30 minutes would be for other classes might balance out the emphasis on
Biology with checking in on his other classes that could not be neglected either. Since Bill lacked
a little bit in organizational/time-management skills, this kind of set-up might be more conducive
to internalizing those skills to better manage his course-load. This is a little bit out of my control,
but I wish I could have recommended for Bill to take Biology 106 before attempting to take
Biology 180 because I think it could have helped him adjust to studying for Biology and the
kinds of questions that the course expects students to be able to answer.
I can recall several instances where I felt that our sessions were really working and Bill
had a bit of a breakthrough, but one the most memorable experiences happened a few weeks
before the end of the quarter. Bill excitedly told me about his practice exam from the past Friday.
He said that after not doing so great on the past exams, he finally scored a 7.5 out of 8 points on
the practice exam, but there turned out to be a technical glitch later on that caused the professor
to actually close the exam and have those scores not count that week, which bummed him out. I
told him that it was just really bad luck that test score wouldnt count that week but at least that
showed that he has really improved on these practice tests and that he is capable of doing really
well on them! Sure enough, the following week he ended up scoring 7 out of 8 points on the next

practice exam. Even though this happened later in the quarter and maybe too late to salvage his
grade this quarter per say, I think that this is an indicator that confirms my earlier belief that Bill
really is capable of doing a lot better grade-wise in biology, he just needed the time to adjust and
find a method of studying that works for him.
I hope that I was able to help build a foundation for effective studying skills in my
mentee. For many classes, sheer memorization of material or lecture slides right before an exam
is an ineffective, discouraging and even painful process; before our second meeting, Bill was
talking about how he had just taken his first biology midterm and to study for it he had just tried
to memorize everything on the lecture slides. By the end of the quarter, I think Bill has realized
that although there are some terms/vocabulary that needed to be memorized as baseline
knowledge to be able to think critically about the material, he should not attempt to merely
memorize everything but instead work through examples and recognize patterns and therefore be
able to predict what might occur in new but similar systems from those recurring trends. By
trying to anticipate what a professor might ask on a test by making up questions using key
concepts, he can practice using his critical thinking skills to apply his knowledge to new
situations. Aside from the tutoring aspect, I think Bill also saw me as a mentor in the sense that
he could ask me about my experience as a biology major, whether I was involved in research,
etc. and open up about his own worries and uncertainties in applying to become a biology major
and potentially applying for medical school as well.
The actual lecture for this course was help for preparing us for what we might encounter
with our mentees. The topics we went over in class helped open my eyes to issues I had not
really thought about before like international students transitions to college and the difficulties
non-traditional college students face. Although the mini-lessons helped keep various issues

concerning our students and even the educational system on our radars, it was especially helpful
to be able to discuss our experiences with our peers. Whenever I was pondering over something
that came up in one of my sessions, in addition to writing about it in my tutor-mentor report, I
would ask some friends what they thought as well and they could always provide me with some
insights or advice. I appreciated that lectures were a time to consult and share with each other
and through those discussions expand our breadths of experience as well.
All in all I am happy that I decided to take a step outside the classes I normally take while
giving back to the UW community in what little way I could by taking this class. I think working
with Bill helped me build my communication and leadership skills immensely. From having to
constantly improvise ways to better illustrate some of the concepts and helping him work
towards understanding of a concept instead of just spewing out answers, these experiences have
forced me to reevaluate as well how I study and understand the dense loads of material I
encounter in my own classes. This experience has also confirmed my zeal for working and
interacting with other people, especially in a smaller setting, which is comforting as I prepare to
apply for optometry school in the near future. I have seen firsthand the positive impact that the
tutor-mentor system has on students and I am proud to be able to say that I was a part of this
program as well.