What will I do as a mentor?
Mentors meet with protégés for around one hour each week in local public schools. In most meetings, mentors will help protégés by listening to them, talking with them, and helping them set and pursue goals related to their performance in school. In some meetings, mentors have scheduled activities, like organizing the protégé's agenda, or helping the protégé meet with a teacher.
What is the commitment?
All mentors make a 5 month (Aug-Dec or Jan-May) commitment to meet with their protégé. This is the minimum expected commitment, and all mentors that are accepted into the program sign a commitment form with their supervisors. However, some mentors continue to meet with their protege for a year or longer. We encourage all mentors to continue meeting with their protégés for as long as their schedule permits.
What must I do to become a mentor?
The first step to becoming a mentor is to evaluate whether or not you have the available time and resources (i.e. transportation) to visit with a youth once per week for 6 months. For specific mentoring times and locations please contact a program coordinator. If you are certain that you can commit to the program, then you will sign up to become a mentor using the "Become a Mentor" link at the top right of this page. After signing up to become a mentor, program staff will review your application and then contact you to help you schedule a criminal background check and training. Successful completion of the background check and the trainings are necessary to become a mentor in the AMPED program.
Mentor training involves an online training component and an in-person training component. Both trainings involve performance tests, and most mentors who successfully complete training report spending time studying and practicing between training sessions. As such, it is usually best to schedule trainings in a way that gives you time to study and practice between trainings.
After you have successfully completed the criminal background check and trainings, your program coordinator will match you with a protégé in a local middle school. After you are matched, but prior to meeting your protégé, you will complete a "dry run" to the school, to ensure that you can find the location, get checked in at the school, and arrive on time. The "dry run" also serves as the last pre-service training, and is used to help mentors locate and use available resources at the school. After completing the "dry run", you will meet with your protege each week at the time and location for which you are scheduled.
How do volunteers benefit from being a mentor?
In addition to the satisfaction of helping a young person navigate the common challenges of middle school, the mentoring program offers several benefits to mentors. First, all mentors have the opportunity to learn a skill-set that is valuable in many helping careers (e.g. psychologists, physicians, counselors, etc.). For example, all mentors gain exposure to Motivational Interviewing (MI), which is a counseling style that many professionals learn to help people. Additionally, all mentors receive supervision and performance feedback in using these skills, which is a valuable resume builder for those interested in pursuing helping careers. Moreover, many mentors who have pursued graduate education have used program staff and supervisors as references for letters of recommendation. Many of our mentors have gone on to pursue Ph.D.'s, Masters Degrees, and other forms of higher education in helping fields.