Mentoring & Bonding

Since it is the end of the year, and I was writing my Chorus Council Speech (congrats to Sabrina Clarke for being next year’s Senior Representative!), I was thinking about how we could further improve chorus. One of the topics that came to mind was mentoring. While we have done bonding activities, such as pasta parties, apple picking, and those sorts of events, I think we should work a little harder to be more personal with our mentees. First of all, I think that in class the day before a concert (most importantly the first concert), or the day of, we can remind mentors to write a letter of encouragement to their mentees. I think it would be nice if someone (I would totally be willing to do this!) went out and bought fun paper and markers and some candy and we took five minutes out of class to write a letter to our mentee and get a baggy of candy for them. Maybe everyone who wanted to write a letter to their mentee (hopefully every mentor) could bring in a few dollars to give to the person buying supplies. I think it is really the little things that count. I know I would have loved to receive an encouraging letter my freshmen year before my first concert. I also think that we should have a beginning of the year cookout to bring everyone in the chorus program together (like the drama cookout). We could play games, eat burgers and hot dogs, make s’mores, and maybe even sing some karaoke?! It would be a casual environment, but with enough things to do that no one feels uncomfortable, but everyone can bond. I think we just need to make bonding opportunities more convenient for everyone.