Subject: [edu-team] Post-BOF Thoughts/Feedback

From: Isabel Montes <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2015 01:16:18 +0800

Hello,

I attended the BOF session earlier and afterwards I got to think more about
how my experience has been so far against all the thought-provoking
discussions that took place during the BOF. I'd like to share some of my
thoughts and feedback as a first-time attendee and ISOC Fellow.

In particular, I personally think the mentoring system is very helpful--I
have been getting a lot of great help from my mentor over email exchanges
prior to the meetings and face-to-face during the past couple of days. What
I think made it work for me was that I had some concrete things to talk
about with him, which I was thinking might not be the case for other new
attendees. They might have no clue where to begin the discussions with
their mentors or may just be too shy/reserved to initiate conversation.

It was a big help that they assigned me a mentor who is chair of a WG I
have been following for a few months now, but I think more than that, the
other thing that was really helpful was that Niel Harper actually suggested
to us (kind of required us to :-) during our first meeting to meet our
mentors and go through the week's agenda jointly to discuss which sessions
would be the best for us to attend. Simple tip but was very useful for me
since I had at least one very concrete thing I wanted to discuss with my
mentor and it helped me be more confident and proactive in scheduling a
meet up and looking for him. I might have been more passive if I felt it
was awkward scheduling a catch up but not knowing what it was I wanted to
ask or talk about, but with a specific agenda it was not difficult.

Maybe simple guides/tips like that for mentees would encourage them to be
more proactive in seeking out their mentors (what to discuss, what kind of
things to ask, etc.)

Regards,
*Isabel Montes*

*Computer Networks Laboratory*
Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute
University of the Philippines - Diliman
[email-masked]

---

From: Nalini Elkins <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2015 21:00:56 +0200

Thanks so much for your comments, Isabel!   We will certainly note your experience.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 20, 2015, at 7:16 PM, Isabel Montes <[email-masked]> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I attended the BOF session earlier and afterwards I got to think more about how my experience has been so far against all the thought-provoking discussions that took place during the BOF. I'd like to share some of my thoughts and feedback as a first-time attendee and ISOC Fellow.
> 
> In particular, I personally think the mentoring system is very helpful--I have been getting a lot of great help from my mentor over email exchanges prior to the meetings and face-to-face during the past couple of days. What I think made it work for me was that I had some concrete things to talk about with him, which I was thinking might not be the case for other new attendees. They might have no clue where to begin the discussions with their mentors or may just be too shy/reserved to initiate conversation.
> 
> It was a big help that they assigned me a mentor who is chair of a WG I have been following for a few months now, but I think more than that, the other thing that was really helpful was that Niel Harper actually suggested to us (kind of required us to :-) during our first meeting to meet our mentors and go through the week's agenda jointly to discuss which sessions would be the best for us to attend. Simple tip but was very useful for me since I had at least one very concrete thing I wanted to discuss with my mentor and it helped me be more confident and proactive in scheduling a meet up and looking for him. I might have been more passive if I felt it was awkward scheduling a catch up but not knowing what it was I wanted to ask or talk about, but with a specific agenda it was not difficult.
> 
> Maybe simple guides/tips like that for mentees would encourage them to be more proactive in seeking out their mentors (what to discuss, what kind of things to ask, etc.)
> 
> Regards,
> Isabel Montes
> 
> Computer Networks Laboratory
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