The Setons Of Gonzaga

For the past four weeks, I have had the pleasure of mentoring a man named Don at Artisans. While our first encounter did not go as smoothly as some of my other peers and their mentees did, we have slowly been forming a relationship that I am sure will have a great impact on my life. During our first meeting, I was told that Don took a while to warm up to people and that was truly the case. I knew about his love for sports so I talked about the different baseball and football games that had occurred in the past week and I could tell he was interested but was not sure about whether or not he wanted to talk to me yet. In the end, I left that first meeting feeling rather defeated and worried about whether or not I would ever feel that connection with my mentee that everyone talks about. The next week when we walked into Artisans I was nervous that it would be the same situation again. Don did a complete 180 though and seemed like a new man! We discussed in a large group some outings t

Well, we are three weeks into our mentoring with Artisans! I have met my mentee, Eetaine, played numerous board games with her, and dueled her in Wii baseball. We've talked about our shopping tendencies (we both love shopping), and we've colored together. We are starting to get to know each other better and setting goals that we will work toward together throughout the year. As nerve-wracking as it was the first time we met, we are starting to create a bond that will lead us through the year.   Once a week on Monday afternoon, I will go to Artisans to spend two hours with her to discuss our week and strengthen our bond to work toward our goals together. This past Monday we were trying to come up with creative Halloween costumes for each other, and we decided on a witch and a princess. This week, we also sat down as a group and decided on some outings we would like to plan during our Monday time slot. We thought that going out into the Spokane community and experiencing new a

    During the week of October 2nd, the Setons Class of 2017-18 had the first sessions with our mentees at The Artisans Spokane .  All having our specific time slots during the week, mine came to be 2-4pm on Thursdays. Very nervous but even more excited, the handful of girls I would be volunteering with and I drove to The Artisans location in North Spokane. Talking amongst ourselves, we all shared feelings of excitement, but also of inadequacy. Were we prepared to be mentors? Most of us hadn't worked with those with disabilities before. Were there skill sets we needed for this job but were lacking?      As soon as I was introduced to my mentee, Gabriel, this fear completely subsided. Talking with him was so natural. I quickly learned that Gabriel is an avid bowler, and we shared passions of hiking, camping, the outdoors, and most importantly, food. We spent our allotted time together playing games and drawing pumpkins to get excited for the fall season.      One of my favorite