Kobe's Mentorship #2

Nathan Smothers and I met at River City Roasters the other day.  I came in feeling super stressed about the summer.  I had an interview over Spring break for an internship that I really wanted and had not heard back yet.  I was feeling very anxious and nervous about what I would hear back.  I expressed this to Nathan, and he was very calming.  He expressed to me that I would be okay if I did not get this internship.  He also expressed that there are many other opportunities that are still available.  He even told me that he has connections in the business world that sounded very intriguing.  Nathan Smothers said that ultimately God is in control of everything including my summer plans.  Nathan prayed over me specifically my summer plans.  I felt a lot better after this meeting with Nathan.  The very next morning I received an email saying that the company wanted to hire me for the summer.  I believe that the prayer from Nathan helped me get the internship I wanted.  He guided me to give my summer plans to the Lord.  After I did this, the Lord rewarded me. 

Hello my dear friends and classmates,

Last week I met with Dr. Bacote in his CACE office in Blanchard. My Tuesday/Thursday's are very easy with only one 8:30 class (Management). I use these days for homework, sleep if needed, and to workout. To be honest I get a little peeved off when Dr. Bacote suggests that we meet on a Tuesday Thursday. Nonetheless we met.

Our conversation started off like normal, a few jokes about sports, the news, how terrible Qdoba is, etc. We have a knack of talking about silly things and then the most vulnerable topic in the same breath. It is a rare happening when I am not extremely uncomfortable during my meetings with Dr. B. Like I have said before, he has a way of asking questions and not letting me off the hook.

He helps me with relational problems and gives me advice and wisdom about my uncertain future.

You call can keep me in your prayers in the next few weeks. Recently I have accepted an internship in the Dominican Republic for 4 weeks. I honestly didn't really need to include this in my post, but I'm pretty excited.

(Un)Fortunately, I am meeting with Dr. Bacote again today after class. Wish me luck!


- Luke Harrison Peters

Post from Kobe Eichelberger

I have been mentored by Nathan Smothers since September 2016.  It has taught me a lot about myself and who I plan to be.  Nathan graduated from Wheaton in 2014 and was a member of the Wheaton College football team.  Nathan and I were able to connect through my church, Antioch Community Church.  I started growing closer to him when I started to go the Antioch college life groups.  By meeting every Tuesday, I grew closer to everyone in my life group especially Nathan.  At the beginning of my Sophomore year, we thought it would be mutually beneficial to have Nathan mentor me. 

            Nathan and I meet about once a week typically at a coffee shop.  We talk about spiritual life, academics, relationships, sports, family, and life in general.  Nathan has been very helpful when we talk about life after college.  I am not 100% sure what I want to do after graduating from Wheaton College, but I do know that I want to do something in the business world.  Nathan has gone through similar things too.  Nathan graduated Wheaton College as a communication major and was not sure what to do with it.  The Lord brought him to Antioch Church as the head worship leader.  Nathan had no idea that he would be led there, but loves what he does.  Having this conversation with Nathan has released lots of stress in my life.

            I have enjoyed this process with Nathan and cannot wait to see what he has in store for our relationship.

Mentor Session 3 - To academic future and beyond

Much like a second game football game that is played within a string of games over a period of only a few days, the second meeting of this week that I had with my mentor ran the risk of suffering from informational substance fatigue. However, since the previous conversation was kept to a brief length that focused primarily on an apology and planning for future meetings.

This second meeting was thus able to go into much greater depth. We began talking about what had gone well during the school year and what had gone wrong during the year. As informed him that I felt my pursuit of greater involvement in school based activities had faltered, he encouraged me to not feel pressured to simply be involved in order to fill out a transcript or resume, but rather for the purpose of flourishing as a young adult that is seeking knowledge and understanding of how to live faithfully as a servant of God, both in everyday residential and work life. For my classes that I found myself succeeding in, my mentor asked me to differentiate between the classes that I was doing well in simply because of my commitment to getting good grades, and in which classes I was succeeding in due to my enjoyment and passion for the material and/or the field of study. For the classes that I lamented disillusion with, he asked me whether I felt that it was my effort, mental ability, presentation of the class, structure of the material, or other reason that I felt I was struggling. As I discussed my views in both regards to my favorite and least favorite classes, my mentor picked up on two key things that he then shared with me. Firstly, he believes that I experience my greatest academic fulfillment and success within business course and other courses that challenge me to switch between applying knowledge to smaller and larger topic canvases. Secondly, he believes that my enjoyment of classes largely boils down to the culture and structure of the classes that I take.

As we moved on to discussing my plans for the summer and the 2017-18 school year, my mentor encouraged me to invest myself more into the relationships with my peers and professors on campus. After hearing this suggestion, I happily informed him that my friends and I would be sharing and apartment, and have big plans in store, I got to witness the notorious smile of mentor that could bring joy to even the bleakest provincial settings. In addition, he was joyous to hear that I was hired for a paid internship that he wrote an online recommendation for. While I will never see what he wrote in that character recommendation letter, he is one of the select few people that I have met, that is willing and capable of being brutally honest, while seeing the very best in an individual.