The Setons Of Gonzaga

This semester, my Monday afternoons have absolutely full of love. My mentee, Kanaan, has taught me compassion, to forgive mistakes and how to appreciate a brand new deck of cards. Walking into Artisans each week to eleven smiling mentees waiting to tell us anything and everything has brought me inexplicable joy. I have found that there is a real sense of a family community among the mentees at Artisans. They know each other’s likes and dislikes, and are quick to tell the mentors when one of their friends is running late. Their genuine care for each other and love of life is a gentle reminder to slow down from our hectic academic schedules. Soon after meeting my mentee, Kanaan, I instantly realized what a rewarding experience this would be. Kanaan immediately told me that checkers is his favorite game because he likes to strategize. The first time we played, he beat me pretty badly. I’m slowly improving thanks to the tips Kanaan gives me, but I need to keep practicing. Kana...

It’s been a few weeks since we started working with Artisans, and it’s been such a blast! My mentee’s name is Carrie, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know her throughout the semester. Most days Carrie and I spend time telling stories, coloring, putting together puzzles, watching old movies, or working on some of her goals. This year, Carrie has three goals that she’s working on. The first is to improve her math skills. One of the first things that she told me when we met was that she wants to know how money works. Carrie has shown a lot of interest in cashier jobs, so we’ve been working with monopoly money to improve those skills. Another goal of Carrie’s is to improve her interviewing/ social skills. And the last major goal of hers is to learn the basic functions of computers. I thought that this was a really good goal, since most of today’s jobs involve some form of technology. Working with Carrie and getting to know her has been such a privilege. It’s truly a mutually benefic...

After several weeks of going to Artisans, I've gotten to know my mentee, Erik, very well! Erik and I both share a passion for cooking and food. We love discussing recipes and telling each other about our favorite foods. Erik loves every type of food, EXCEPT organic spaghetti. Erik and I love watching The Food Network! His favorite show is Guy's Grocery Games, and mine is Giada at Home. It has been so cool to bond with Erik over these things. I can always expect a conversation about what we had for lunch as the first thing we talk about during our sessions. Erik and I also have bonded over the fact we both have Pugs. We love our dogs! Erik and I, as well as the other mentees and mentors in my group, are hoping to go on outings to the bowling alley, froyo, and even possibly the movies! Erik ALWAYS has a smile on his face, whether we are playing games or doing something more serious like writing down our goals. This week Erik and I worked together to create cards, which w...

This week I learned a whole lot about what love looks like through my mentee, Misty! Due to some scheduling complications, this Wednesday was my first time meeting Misty. She greeted me with a huge smile and a high-five, exclaiming, “Let’s get this thing started!” As we strolled into the room, she took a seat and looked at me in anticipation. I asked her how her weekend was, and before I knew it we were chatting about everything from siblings to Halloween candy to bowling. We quickly found our mutual love for the Zags-happily chanting “Go Zags!” in unison and at the randomest times. We started working on our cards, and Misty was consistently kind-happily contributing suggestions along the way and cheering me on after I finished a card. For our LifePrint photo, we stood against the wall and gave our best “smolder”-Misty made it clear that I had it in me to be America’s Next Top Model. Once our cards were finished, we played an exhilarating round of “Pop the Pig”, a nerve-wracking ga...

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 ...

    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. ...