7 Simple Mentorship Strategies Educators Can Use to Support Student Success

• Extend the offer for connection beyond the classroom. Educators looking to offer mentorship can start by offering their classroom as a place to eat lunch or have an early breakfast before class. Offer a place to read, a place to do homework. Some children have a need for those spaces and benefits outside of the classroom, and others will come based on curiosity. With this invitation, students can ask themselves (and decide) what spending more time with this teacher (and some of my peers) looks like and how can I make the most of it?

• Offer emotional support and empathy. This “strategy” likely comes very naturally to most educators, but it bears repeating that an open door where a student can find (extra) compassion and understanding on the other side will encourage organic mentorship. Studies looking at how mentoring relationships work suggest that mentors with more empathy are able to develop higher quality relationships with their mentee. This is not surprising, as research on other helping or supportive relationships, such as those with doctors, social workers, and teachers, has emphasized the importance of empathy

• Take a playful approach. MENTOR, a national nonprofit dedicated to youth mentorship, emphasizes the power of play for building connection and relationship building.Once students feel like they can come to you for downtime, incorporating play—shooting hoops together in the gym, a casual game of checkers or chess, or even self-disclosing humorous anecdotes from your past—extends a sign of respect to youth because “play” is considered their zone, not adults’. A lighthearted approach by the mentor can communicate their investment in the mentee and a willingness to be vulnerable and approachable. For example, when a mentor shares a funny story of failing at a similar or related task, either when younger or more recently, they communicate a willingness to join the mentee in the anxiety or fear that an activity may evoke, helping to put the student at ease and feel more open to taking risks and being vulnerable.

• Attune your mentorship approach as you go. Attunement refers to communication skills that help people feel truly heard and seen, strengthening connection in supportive relationships. Mentors should pay attention to their own cues (bodily state, thoughts, feelings). They can in turn observe their mentees’ verbal and nonverbal cues, and respond to those cues in a flexible way, without pushing their agenda at the expense of the connection. By practicing this mentoring strategy, educators can meet the mentee where they are on any given day or in key points throughout the school year, especially as key moments approach like exams or college applications. This way mentors can find opportune times to step in and engage the students to help them open up and share about what they might need in terms of support.

• Facilitate group interactions. Mentorship can absolutely diverge from the one-to-one dynamic to pairs or small groups of students.Perhaps those who share similar interests, have similar challenges outside the classroom, or simply show an interest in mentorship in general. Being part of a peer group gives young people a chance to learn valuable skills, like making new friends, resolving conflicts, and standing up for oneself. Mentors can help by modeling ways to use those skills in the ways they interact with group members. In cases where there are two or more mentors in a group, the way the mentors interact with each other can also serve as a model for youth.

• Set goals with your mentee(s). Consider and discuss goals for the school year or semester. Goal setting can provide structure to the extra time spent in mentorship and help the students make sense of their world and explore their personal growth. Example goals can include learning more and going deeper on the academy industry or a relevant topic, skills to learn or practice, or more quantifiable goals such as GPA improvement or test score improvement.

• Extend support for resume review and professional development. While setting academic goals is a great here-and-now starting point, NAF will always encourage our students to engage in career mapping and planning, and mentorships are a great way to deepen that work. This can take the form of sharing your own journey through post-secondary school and deciding on and actualizing your career, resume review, offering to introduce mentees to your professional network, or practicing interviewing or networking skills outside the classroom.

This National Mentoring Month, NAF encourages our indispensable educators to remember that young people rarely need grand gestures or perfectly designed programs to feel supported. They need presence. They need consistency. They need adults who are willing to notice them, make room for them, and walk alongside them in both serious and joyous moments.