Mentorship
Planning Guide Select where you are in your real world learning journey.
Getting Started
Set your goals and understand your commitment.
Finding Partners
Who from the real world will interact with your students?
Preparing
What do you need to be ready to launch?
Launching
Connect your students with real world learning experiences.
Following Up
How will you follow up with everyone after the experience?
Reflecting
Did you achieve your goals?
Getting Started
Understand goals and commitments
Write down your vision and identify what you would like students to learn from the mentorship experience. NOTE: Not all students will participate in the same mentorship opportunity. You will need to determine how to introduce and offer this opportunity. Use the RWL Activity Planning Worksheet
Contact your school guidance counselors, college and career services at your district or even a local college to help find organization to identify mentorship coordination organizations
Research mentorship coordination organizations that provide high school mentorship programs
Tips
- Determine the tasks you will complete and the ones you will expect students to complete. Many of the connect and prepare steps can be done by students for this opportunit
Supporting materials that can help
RWL Activity Planning Worksheet
A blank worksheet designed to plan the activity
Finding Partners
Who from the real world will interact with your students?
Determine which organization(s) best meets your students’ needs
Contact partner to obtain application and registration materials, if necessary
Identify one contact person at the coordination organization that you can contact with questions about mentors, students and mentorship relationships
Obtain relevant information for the coordination partner(s)/organization(s):
- Student requirements
- Industries and organizations
- Time commitment
- Feedback from past participants
- Potential cost to families
Tips
- It may make most sense if it’s your first time coordinating mentorships to select just one partner organization for a group of students.
Preparing
What do you need to be ready to launch?
Introduce the the value of mentorship as a great way to college applications, job readiness, career exploration and self-awareness
Do a lesson to get students thinking about how a mentor could help them. This lesson could take 1-2 class periods. You may also assign researching mentorship opportunities as a homework assignment (see Strengths and Goal Setting Lesson)
Introduce the mentorship coordination partner(s)/organization(s) to students who will participate. If possible, ask a content or program manager from the coordination organization to come to your school to provide an overview of the the program, share success stories and answer any questions
Support students with the application process and ensure materials are sent in on time
Ensure students understand their roles as mentees (see Example Mentee Roles and Responsibilities)
Supporting materials that can help
Strengths and Goal-Setting Lesson
Use this simple lesson plan created for mentors as a lesson for students to begin understanding their strengths, values and goals
Mentee Roles and Responsibilities
A resource to use with students to ensure their roles and responsibilities as mentees.
Launching
Connect your students with real world learning experiences.
Students participate in the mentorship
Check in with students on their goals, expectations and the mentor-mentee relationship
Provide students with support or connect them to support they need to be successful (organization, multitasking, transportation, etc.)
Coordinate a mentorship appreciation event. Invite students and mentors to share their stories with parents, school and district leaders (luncheon or breakfast)
Check in with the partner organization as needed based on student feedback and experience. A rubric can be used to evaluate the student’s experience (see Sample Mentor Rubric)
Tips
- If allowed by the partner, students should take pictures to document their experience
- The experience may not be “time bound”, so be thoughtful about how you support students
- The mentor rubric can be used more than once in the process to provide balanced perspective
Supporting materials that can help
A sample rubric you may choose to use with students to assess their mentor
Following Up
How will you follow up with everyone after the experience?
Send thank you notes to the mentorship coordination partner(s)/organizations(s) on behalf of yourself and the students
Reach out to anyone else who helped in arranging the mentorships to update them on the experience and thank them for their assistance
Have students write personal thank you notes sharing how they benefited from the experience to their mentors and the coordinating organization
Schedule follow up call with coordinating partner organization to get feedback about your students and their preparation for the activity
Tips
- Students should document and share their experience in some manner
- In students’ thank you notes, they should indicate how they would like to continue the relationships
Reflecting
Did you achieve your goals?
Reflect on the event with your students (see Student Reflection)
Reflect on the event yourself (see Teacher Reflection)
Share about the experience with teachers and families
Tips
- Share your students’ stories. It will help spread good ideas and gain support from others. You can blog about it, share it at a faculty meeting, send out a press release, etc.
Supporting materials that can help
A sample reflection sheet to use after a presentation
A sample reflection sheet to use after the networking event
