A Mentor's Perspective: "This works brilliantly"
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We’re excited to present the second in the series of mentor blogs (first instalment can be found here). Evaluation and Monitoring Manager at Study Higher Charlie Deeks shares insights from his years of experience working as a Causeway mentor, explaining why our mentoring scheme works so well, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Being the first in my family to apply to university, and coming from a school in a seaside town with low progression to higher education, I’ve been acutely aware of the disparities in applying to higher education for a long time. At school, I didn’t really know what I was doing when it came to applying to University. Thanks to a couple of people in my sixth form pointing me in the right direction, I was lucky enough to go on a summer school which was invaluable in allowing me to see first-hand what University was like, and it gave me the belief and understanding to make the jump into higher education and to my dream University. I didn’t know it then, but that experience was the first step in my mission to give back, and to help students in the same way I had been helped.
Fast forward to five years later, and (for the fourth straight year!) I was working on the same summer school that I attended as a 17-year-old. I had just finished my Politics degree and I was busy working on my Masters in Educational Research, where I was writing a thesis on inequalities in personal statement writing. I had realised that the personal statement was a key area where I could make a difference - despite their best efforts and intentions, staff in schools and colleges found it hard to give accurate advice and guidance, and universities and educational charities were well placed to step in and assist students most in need. On that summer school, I helped out on a personal statement session being run by Causeway. They did a brilliant, engaging session, and I was especially impressed by their evidence-based approach to supporting students with personal statements. I spoke with the Causeway team about the research I was running and they were keen to get me on board with their e-mentoring scheme - I was thrilled as it gave me a chance to keep helping students in my area of expertise!
One of the great strengths of the programme is that the mentors come from all areas and can provide expertise across the spectrum of working life. In my first training session, we had a barrister, a vet and a former headteacher - being able to ask people in these sort of professions questions about their experiences is invaluable, especially if they can get personal statement support alongside that! The session made sure that everyone was on the same page, and that we were using all of the available research to make sure that the advice that we were giving would be effective and engaging.
Back then, we were working with just over 100 students - but now, we support over 1000 students with their applications and the programme is going from strength to strength. For the first few years, the support that mentors would give would be very specific to personal statements. We use an online platform called OSCAR, which heavily focuses around redrafting and improving the statements. The platform gives the students prompts to get started on their statement and provides some guidance with wider reading and how to structure their initial drafts. Mentors then provide line-by-line feedback on their drafts and make sure they are polished and detailed. It also has a chat window where we can explain our thoughts and give guidance on how they’re getting on, and what to focus on next.
The evidence has shown that this works brilliantly, and is still the core of the support we give, but as a result of COVID, this year has been even more important - since access to universities and school support has been limited, students are asking us more questions that they would usually ask at university visits or open days. These might be questions about university life, how to make choices about where to go or what course to study and what to do about student finance. If there are ever questions too specific or tricky, the Causeway team is always available to help out and between the expertise of the Causeway team and our ever-expanding pool of mentors, there’s usually someone that knows the answer to any questions we get. I’ve felt like we’ve had even more of an impact than ever, and I've been lucky enough to get some lovely messages from my mentees telling me as much!
I have found that being a mentor for Causeway is both extremely fulfilling and a great way to make a direct difference to students as they apply to university. I’m proud to be a part of it and I'm looking forward to getting my next group of mentees already!
