My first mentorship experience

I got into university, Instituto Superior Tecnico in TagusPark, to pursue Communications Networks degree (now called Telecommunications and Informatics Engineering) without knowing anything about programming. The first programming course I had was the Programming Foundations course, in which in the first classes I found myself a bit lost. In this course, we were taught how to code through Python. So this was the first programming language I learned!

In one of the programming labs, I did an exercise which I thought I performed poorly. I was failing to understand basic concepts, such as how and when to use a “while” loop.

After that class where I felt very frustrated and sad by not getting some basic concepts, one of the first-year mentors, from NAPE (Student Support Unit), found me and asked how I was getting with the first classes. I was completely honest and explained I was feeling lost and did not understand the exercise I just had completed in the class board. She was super kind and offered to meet with me the next Friday at 6 pm (same week) to help me get unstuck in my learnings.

That Friday, she set down with me in a classroom that only had some students studying on their own, and explained to me some basic programming concepts such as while loops and other operations. In that meet things just clicked in my head! After this, I got unblocked and understood that it’s all about logic. Since then I started doing much better and picking up concepts so much easier!

From this little story and all my experience ever since getting into this tech industry, I feel that sometimes people just need a little push to unlock their potential.

I’m glad that there are programs such as NAPE, a student support unit at Instituto Superior Técnico, which helped me get in touch with other more advanced students who could encourage and support me as a first-year student.

The second year of college, a professor involved with the mentoring and tutoring program, invited me and other students to become mentors. I decided to accept it and contribute to the mentors’ mission, to help newcomers to college adjust to academic life. Through this experience, I met mentees and mentors who became friends and got to give back to the same program that helped me so much as a newcomer coming from another city.

I feel that mentoring is such an important thing to have in life. Having people vouching for you, that want you to succeed and support you in the learning journey can make a great impact on your life and career.