OCTOBER 3, 2025 | OPINION | By Polina Panasenko
As we enter Block 2, most first-year students begin their second FYP class and look forward to completing their primary requirements at CC. FYP mentors are going through this process a second, third, and some even a fourth time, but now in a new role.
With the multitude of commitments CC students take on during the Block Plan, being an FYP mentor can be tough and sometimes even discouraging.
There is the institution on one side, mentees on the other, and mentors in the middle. Mentors have to be able to balance their own commitments while remaining physically and mentally available to new students.
While it is a rewarding process that fosters lasting peer-to-peer connections, it can be challenging to find the energy to discuss the positive aspects of CC, especially when your entire life is consumed by a difficult block with a demanding professor and struggles with student employment.
Beyond this, CC is a unique bubble in every sense possible. As a first-year, you must adapt to an entirely new social setting while navigating the school’s economy, politics, goals and expectations.
Banner SSB, Canvas, Gold Card, Daily Digest and other resources are often new to first-year students, who receive little to no explanation from the administration on how each of them works. Some of this teaching process gets passed on to the FYP mentors, who have fresh memories of learning all of the CC intricacies themselves. It is difficult to figure out, and it is difficult to pass on.
When it comes to the institutional aspect, FYP mentors have a class of randomly chosen students, and facing the challenge of accommodating everyone reveals how unaccommodating the campus can be, whether that be in terms of physical accessibility, class consciousness or food security awareness. Mentors become the necessary bridges to advocate for students and voice their needs while teaching them the rules of the Colorado College game.
Then, there is the aspect of student participation, which is a pain felt by every student worker at CC: students don’t show up to community-building events even if you offer free food. Two other mentors shared that some of their first-year mentees left the FYP GroupMe after their first meeting.
Mentors meet during the weekly adjunct training and discuss how helpless they feel in the face of bureaucracy, inequality and a lack of engagement in the events they manage to fit into their already tight schedules. But they continue to try and come up with new strategies, because it is truly rewarding seeing your mentees pass a challenging class, succeed in athletics or find new friends.
I want the first-years to take away one message from this albeit slightly pessimistic piece. Get excited about this overly complicated yet exciting journey, and your mentors will be there to support you.
We know when it is tough and when it is fun, and we want to guide you through it. So, show up to your FYP events, talk to your mentors and explore everything this place has to offer.