STEP 1: First Meeting - Creating a Shared Vision

Today was my first meeting with Cami.  It was very nice to finally put a face to the name. Before meeting Cami, I made sure not to commit some typical mentoring mistakes we learned in class; acting like somebody you are not, constantly talk about myself, and most importantly, not being genuine.  I decided to start the conversation by first introducing myself and sharing with her a little bit about my background. She then told me all about herself.  In short, Cami is from Portland, Oregon and she is in her second semester of Hospitality and Tourism Management.  She is a part time student at SDSU since she is still taking some classes at Grossmont College.  She is currently working as a sales associate at Express in Fashion Valley.  This experience has helped develop and strengthen her interpersonal communication skills and has helped her learn how to provide satisfactory customer experience.  We then talked about the classes that I am currently taking and the ones that she is taking.  I gave her some tips as to which classes I think she should take next semester and I recommended a few professors I personally like.  I asked her what her career goals where and I was pretty impressed that she had her mind set on either being a caterer or opening her own cafe shop.  One year ago, when I was in her shoes, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life.  Her current goal is to find a hospitality related job in order to start getting to know the language and feel the exciting energy of this industry.  I really enjoyed meeting Cami and I feel like we are going to get along just fine.  One thing I really tried to stress to Cami is that if she needs help with anything, she can come to me and I will gladly to my best to help her or answer any questions she might have on a specific project or class.  Our collective vision for this project was for both of us to gain the most out of this experience.  Our goal was for both of us to learn from each other.