Purchase College Students Seek Advice on Mentoring from Broadview Residents

Experience is often the best teacher. Just ask Victoria Hines, a Sophomore at Purchase College.

Victoria was one of a small group of students who recently met with residents at Broadview at Purchase College, a senior living community on the campus of Purchase College. The meet-up was part of a series of intergenerational learning opportunities that bring residents in their 70s and 80s together with students in their teens and 20s.

On this particular afternoon, Victoria and her classmates were there to see if these older adults could help them learn how to be better mentors. The students are part of a program run by Professor Amy Beth Wright, who fittingly is on the writing faculty at the college. As a member of the Department of Humanities, Professor Wright also teaches other subjects including pedagogy, which is just a fancy word for the art of teaching how to teach.

As part of her pedagogy endeavors, Wright is preparing this group of Sophomores to act as mentors to Freshman students in the First-Year Learning Community, a class where newcomers to campus get acclimated to college life, build relationships, and get support from their peers.

“I had been hoping that our mentors for the first-year learning class would have the experience of talking to their own mentors who could advise them on how to be better mentors,’’ said Wright.

Gathering at tables in small groups of threes and fours students chatted with seniors. They talked animatedly about their families, friends, and relationships.

Victoria and her friend Lovena Duperval said afterward they were surprised at the common emotions they shared and the valuable advice they received.

“They had some very good suggestions,’’ said Victoria. One in particular, she said, was for them to get their student mentees to talk about themselves.

“They suggested that we could help them more by getting to know them on a deeper level,’’ Lovena added.

Claire Bronitt Stevens, a Broadview resident who has been working as a mentor to another group of students in the journalism program, said she was surprised at how eager young people were to hear from her about her many careers in journalism, communications and radio.

“Here was this group of Juniors asking our advice on their senior projects,’’ said Stevens. “They seemed genuinely pleased just to talk and get to know us as people, not adults who were there to impose on them, but to meet us and find out what we are all about.”

Stevens said she was impressed by the students’ curiosity and maturity. She said she has agreed to be interviewed for a documentary as part of one student’s project.

“I’m very excited about it,’’ she said. “I think I learned as much from these young people as they learned from me. I guess that’s what it’s all about.’’