National Mentoring Month

National Mentoring Month is a campaign held each January to promote the teaching or helping of students with their future in the United States. It was started in January 2002. According to Wikipedia, it was spearheaded by Harvard School for Public Health, MENTOR (a National Mentoring Partnership that advocates for and provides mentoring), and the Corporation for National and Community Service.

“Governmental agencies are responsible for coordinating local campaign activities in communities across the country, including media outreach and volunteer recruitment,” Wikipedia explains.

Mentors are role models who encourage their mentees to do better, acknowledge them, suggest ideas, and help them learn new skills. There are many online programs that offer mentoring: https://icouldbe.org/, https://imentor.org/, https://mentornet.org/, and many more. Another good source to find a mentor is https://www.mentoring.org/get-involved/find-a-mentor/.

Mentors are very important because they can help students make good choices that affect their futures and provide encouragement for success. Mentors invest their time in students and look to see rewards in the future, but students must reach out to find people willing to help them. That is where the websites come in handy.

Mentoring is usually free and most mentors donate their time and resources. According to sage.com, “60% (of people seeking a mentor) look for experience in a mentor above anything else, but 85% currently do not have a mentor.”

The New Year is a good time to seek out a mentor and make 2020 a successful and rewarding step toward the future.