Kicking off the Year with Mentorship

On Wednesday, September 28th, Undeclared Engineering mentees and mentors gathered in the Court of Sciences to kick start SWE’s first Fall Mentorship event (co-hosted with TBP and ESUC). Their mission? To explore the streets of Westwood and seek out its icons – the places every Bruin loves to go! Mentors formed partnerships and led teams of three or four mentees each. The teams snapped pictures of their treks from Diddy Reise to Mr. Noodle, from Mr. Noodle to the Village Center Theatre, and beyond. Spurred on by warning texts, all teams rushed back to Boelter Hall for their first check-in before the final one-minute alert was sent out. From there, they boldly went where few freshmen have gone before: the deserted “Dungeon” on the second floor of Boelter, the only elevator to SEL, and the Harry Potter Stairs. Half an hour later, everyone gathered in the Boelter Penthouse to enjoy some pizza and light refreshments. Clearly in the lead was Team Purple, who earned twenty-four points out of thirty-two. All other teams tallied at either twenty-one or twenty points. While Team Blank was in the latter category, they demonstrated a wonderful propensity for creativity that placed them as the runner-up for first place. Everyone received prizes, with the top four teams winning some UCLA swag!

On the following Wednesday, October 5th, SWE held a workshop for undeclared engineers along with TBP and ESUC. After all the mentees and mentors grabbed some Socko’s sandwiches, Erkki Corpuz and three of his fellow academic counselors gave a very informative presentation interspaced with entertaining photos and startling statistics about all of UCLA’s

engineering majors. The Q&A session that followed saw many raised hands from the attending mentees who were able to voice their individual concerns to the helpful experts present. The mentees and mentors then formed teams and constructed escape plans from a

deserted island using all the items each engineer thought up of beforehand. The myriad of creative methods ranged from hilarious to thoughtful to bizarre. After each team shared their plans amidst general laughter and cheer, the mentees then spoke to their mentors about the latters’ experiences with their majors. The evening concluded with a raffle with prizes such as SWE t-shirts.

Both events had a great turnout and were a wonderful success! Every mentee and mentor who attended either event received an email of the contact list for everyone else who attended. They were both great ways to meet new friends – both from the mentees and mentors. Many mentees contacted their mentors after the scavenger hunt and workshop to further strengthen their mentor-mentee relationship.

Amy Lin

Mentorship Chair