<p>I was a mentor for international students at my undergrad in the 2009-2010 year. Regrettably, due to overloading myself too much during the year and some personal reasons, I couldn’t fulfill the basic mentor responsibility as designated by the mentorship program, which included personally meeting my mentees at least four times in the semester, attending at least two mentorship-hosted events together and attending monthly mentor team meetings (the only thing I satisfied).
The fact that I couldn’t fulfill the basic requirement was not only bad for the program and my mentees, but also myself. I feel I didn’t get what I initially wanted out of the program (eg. increased ability to communicate and help someone) and I also feel indebted to the program for not having done my part. So I reapplied to become a mentor for the 2010-2011 year and got an interview which is in a few days. I’m worried if the interviewer might ask me why I couldn’t fulfill the responsibility last year and why I’ve reapplied to become a mentor. How should I answer this? If I tell them the truth, then I won’t look so desirable because they would think I’m not a good time manager, which isn’t really why I couldn’t fulfill the requirements. I’m confident that I’ll be able to exceed, let alone satisfy, the basic requirements for the 2010-2011 year since I won’t make the same mistake of overloading myself. I also figured out how to manage my personal issues. Additionally, I’ve obtained some really great books on mentorship. I haven’t read them yet but reading them will prepare me well to become a great mentor. But still, what should I say if the interviewer mentions my previous inability to fulfill the basic requirement?</p>