Futures Initiative Mentoring Workshop Day 2: Photo Essay
Everybody raise your hand! #futuresed pic.twitter.com/yhID1PEemy
— Futures Initiative (@FuturesED) August 19, 2015
The Futures Initiative Mentoring Workshop continued on August 19, 2015 at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Undergraduate students continued to work with graduate students and the FI team to think through mentoring and higher education.

FI Director Cathy Davidson sets the tone for the second workshop day by discussing meta-cognition with the FI Mentors

Hilarie Ashton leads the Mentors in exploding the text, where each person voices their response to the poem “The Rose That Grew From Concrete”

Mentors respond to the poem first on paper then as part of a live reading, which blew away everyone who was present!

Mentors watch a short excerpt of “The PolyMath,” about Samuel Delany, and discuss the dynamics of the classroom

Following the segment, in which Delany explains that he asks all his students to raise their hands, the Mentors are encouraged to raise their hands, but are a little reluctant at first.

Cathy Davidson and Jade Davis contribute to the discussion about classroom dynamics and the significance of every participant having a voice.

Danica Savonick maps out CUNY resources and guides mentors through a history of student activism in CUNY.

Mentors get into campus-based groups to present what resources they want added to their
individual campuses.

During lunch, one of the Mentors played the White Stripes’ “We’re Going To Be Friends” on a ukulele.

Following this discussion, the FI Fellows left to allow the Mentors to develop their own strategy for the coming 2015-2016 academic year.

Mentors walked us through the test site that they had developed, to stay connected with each other and with their future mentees.
See more photos from the two-day Mentoring Workshop here on Flickr!