Electrical Engineering Doctoral Student Ted Junseok Song
As a mentor in the IE Pre-Graduate School Internship, I had the opportunity to interact with my intern, Jose Hinojosa Jr., on a one-to-one basis which gave me a whole new mentoring perspective. Good mentoring starts with listening and understanding the students' needs, which I normally did not think about deeply. As I went through the internship with my intern, I learned very much about his personal background, his point of view in life, and his dreams and challenges. To help him to achieve his goals, I did not just give him direct advice which may not be 100% correct answer for his challenges. I tried to share my experiences dealing with the difficulties in the past, hoping that my intern could use this as an indirect experience which would help him to overcome the challenges in his own way. Throughout the semester, I learned how good mentoring can be different based on mentees' environment and situation.
There are many things that graduate students can learn only from a program like IE. For me, guiding a sophomore student to a right path was not an easy task. However, I have gained the knowledge about how to become a good leader. Of course, there are many books and articles about becoming a good leader, but reading these materials cannot be compared to the significance of gaining knowledge from the experiences. Graduate students, including myself, will become the leaders no matter where they work after graduation. Whatever the profession is, the interaction with co-researchers or co-workers will play a great roll in the career of future leaders. Having the mentoring experience in the IE Pre-Graduate School Internship is a great start to preparing graduate students to become professionals. I would also like to mention the pleasure for mentors to see mentees growing up in academically. Especially for me, it was not just a great pleasure, but also an honor to be the witness of a young talented student growing up,
In conclusion, the IE Pre-Graduate School Internship is a huge win-win program for both mentors and mentees. I am also sure that sharing the knowledge and experience would be a great benefit to UT and the State of Texas. What a nice way to express our love to our school and where we live. Hook'em Horns!
It has been a great privilege for me to participate in the IE Pre Grad Internship Program. Actually, it changed my mind about teaching. Before participating in IE, I never thought seriously about becoming a faculty member; I wanted to work in industry so that I could contribute to the advancement of technology. However, with this mentoring experience, I learned that how a good education can have a huge impact on students and society.
