By Chubo (Tony) Peng
Good afternoon everyone! I am honored to share my past mentee experience as a current Global Lion Mentor here in this room. No matter what your individual motives for becoming mentors may be, I am glad that you joined this amazing program. What you’re about to hear in the next three to five minutes is the deepest gratitude to the Global Lion Mentor Program from the bottom of my heart.
As a student from a well-educated family in China, I was always taught to appreciate every gift of life and take nothing for granted. According to a Chinese saying, “When others offer you a drop of water when you’re thirsty, you ought to pay them back with a brook that never dries.” I am not a man with many beautiful words to describe my appreciation, but one thing I’m sure of from the first day that I signed up as a mentee is that my mentor has given me immense help that I can never repay over the course of time.
Let me begin my story with the Global Lion Mentor program from the time when I was about to graduate from high school. Although I had been in the United States for 3 full years and I was familiar with the academic environment here, I was scared of my upcoming life at college just as many of my classmates were. Therefore, as soon as I decided to go to Penn State, my dream school, I started browsing for available resources that could give me a head start for college. Eventually, a Penn State Harrisburg program named Global Lion Mentor caught my eyes. I was impressed by its goals, which are to help new international students overcome the difficulties as they enter a new environment as well as building a strong relationship between the helpers and those who are helped. Without a single doubt, I put my name down on the application form. And in just two weeks, I received an ebullient greetings letter from my mentor, Yu (Ellie) Fu, a junior at Penn State Harrisburg who shares the accounting major with me. Since then, Ellie has offered me enormous help during my most confusing periods. As the summer vacation unfolded, I started researching for academic strategies including course selection, time management, professor selection, etc. As soon as I came up with a question, I sent Ellie a text through WeChat. Every time she got back to me as soon as she could. I could still recall that when I asked her about purchasing linens only a few days before my flight back to Penn State, she was touring the mountains with her family. Nevertheless, she provided me with helpful related information right after she regained internet access that night. Her enthusiasm and kindness deeply touched my heart and my appreciation towards this program eventually motivated me to do my share as a mentor after I was totally comfortable with the life at Middletown.
When I became a Global Lion Mentor, I strived to do my best in order to assist my mentees with any potential help they needed. With regards to my own expectations as a mentor, I pushed myself to rapidly respond to my mentees’ questions with great patience just like my mentor did a year ago. I also encouraged myself to be fully responsible for my personal actions as well as my influence on those people I’ve helped. In the beginning of spring semester of 2016, our big family at Penn State Harrisburg gained about 30 fresh faces. As a mentor, I participated in all the kickoff activities before the semester began. During the campus tour and Walmart trip, I took initiative, reached out to the new students and offered them my contact information. In the next few weeks, many of them stayed in touch with me along with my originally assigned mentee. Since then, whenever one of them expresses a word of concern, I am able to come up with a direct answer. During the months working as a GLM, I have developed a huge passion for my job, and I have become a true mentor to all the new international students as I help them integrate into a brand new environment away from their homes thousands of miles across the ocean.
To summarize my speech, I would like to spread two messages.
First, I would like to present my greatest appreciation to the Global Lion Mentor program. If this program did not exist, I cannot imagine how many new international students including me would wander around the campus without knowing how to use the on-campus facilities or who to reach out to obtain help. Furthermore, I am also grateful that I have gained my opportunity to give back to the program that has benefitted me. Now I am able to work happily under the good founding principles by Ms Patty as well as the strong leadership of Ms Wendy. Many thanks to you two for founding such a wonderful program and keeping it well organized.
Secondly, I feel a great urge to share with you all my own definition of the GLM spirit. As Global Lion Mentors, we represent Penn State pride; we recognize ourselves as a distinguished student group with high self expectations, and more importantly, as responsible young adults. The greatest challenge for us is to remain focused when surrounded by various distractions. You have to make sure you’re always available regardless of how your mentees respond; you also have to be clear about the ethical and unethical behaviors in order to exemplify the good values as mentors. In brief, the GLM spirit from my standpoint can be concluded as “be present as a helpful and ethical role model.” No matter what your interpretations of GLM spirit are, let’s all cherish this perfect opportunity to polish and enhance our personal values that are crucial for our career and leadership success in the future.
Thank you and may God bless you all.