In college I was part of a mentor program to help get middle and high school students interested in pursuing careers in science. We had different experiments and projects put together that we would do with the students and we would talk to them about some of the different options for science majors.

I really enjoyed doing it because I love science. It was fun to do the experiments with the students and talk to them about their ideas for the field of science. I don’t think it took too much of my time. I got to pick how much time I really spent with the students. It was really worth it and I would do something similar again if I had the opportunity. I’m not sure if I made a difference or not for all the students I worked with, but I hope I did.

I’d definitely recommend mentoring to anyone that has a desire to do it!

I have been involved in mentoring both formally and informally. I have mentored Indigenous journalists and students over the years. I have mentors myself who are so, so valuable to me and again, both formally and informally.

In a formal program, there will usually be expectations of how long you will spend with your mentees and what that interaction will involved. It might be a phone call, a meeting every so often, or even by email or a combination. There is likely to be some flexibility.

It’s good to talk to the person you are working with to come up with some ground rules and set clear expectations so there is no misunderstanding.

However, in many cases it is a rewarding and valuable experience for both the mentor and mentee. Keep in mind the idea isn’t to solve their problems but to help them to learn to find solutions to their own problems. The old give a man a fish/teach a man to fish principle.

I have mentor, but on a short-term basis for Big Brothers/Big Sisters. I ended up PCSing so I do not think it had quite the impact it may have had I been there longer. I was in my late teens and she was in elementary school. We went places at least once a week together. I would also help with her homework sometimes.

I do not know if this is a program which you may be interested in. They had started this in one of the elementary schools my kids went attended. The link is for the high school level as that seemed to be more of the age group you wanted.

If I’m going to give you advice on mentoring, I have no objection, but it seems sort of needlessly recursive.

I will say that I never learned so much about Microsoft Excel as when I started answering users’ questions on it. New and inexperienced users who didn’t know what couldn’t be done (for example) would ask questions that led me to realize that you really can get there from here. The same holds true in all kinds of technologies and techniques.

@Season_of_Fall I encourage you to mentor/volunteer. The areas you say you want to offer advice in are desperately needed. I will also add that advice from someone else is sometimes more welcome and more likely to be followed or absorbed than advice from a parent. (Speaking as the mother of a 17 year old son.)

I mentor kids as part of my teaching job. Age group is 8–18. I think it’s a really important thing for kids to have mentoring relationships with adults in their lives besides their parents. It helps them on a lot of levels, particularly in navigating and finding their places in the world. I like to think I have a particularly important role (who doesn’t?) because I also teach some essential living skills and skills that help people relate to the wider world.

If there ever was a mentor in the projects, it was a police officer in uniform. I have worked in my project areas. Even when I was not on a call, I could stop my police car anywhere in the projects and the children came running. I always tried to have something in my trunk to give them and they knew it. Most of these children do not have a father or at least one they know about. A police officer is their father. I would attempt to give the love and praise they were not receiving from their biological father. I must say this did my heart good and I know the mothers of these children appreciated any help I could give them.

Being a mentor carries a special respect that you have for your fellow man and for yourself.

I have trained many rookie officers. As time goes by, I have stood back and watched them handle a situation, just the way I taught them. That was a good feeling.

I don’t think mentors help them so much with retirement programs so much as how to know when to break up with a boyfriend, how to handle conflict.. more basic skills, less “go to HR Block” skills.

I had a wonderful experience with a literacy program. It was based on the Laubach ‘Each One Teach One’ method which I think is ingenious. I worked with one Hispanic fellow who need help with English as well as reading/writing. It was back in the time Reagan granted Amnesty to a few million immigrants on conditions they could prove they they had already been in the country for five years. We got together each week for a few hours and worked on some aspects of reading and writing, including some bills and the amnesty application. He just got his approval about the time I moved from that city. What a hardworking guy, it was easy to welcome him aboard.

It depends upon what the motive is. If someone signs up to be a mentor, but doesn’t have the desire to do so, then people get stuck with a person who just wants to put it on their resume and is ineffective.

When did you do it? In my few jobs, albeit unofficially. I was open to and took the time to coach anyone who asked for help.

Was there an age group or specific group you wanted to help? At work, only if it came to those new to the company’s culture, which I firmly believed in. Outside of a work environment, it tends to be coaching the youth in my family that differences in skin color, religion, and gender should not be ridiculed.

Did it take a lot of time? Was it worth the time you put in? Do you think it made a difference? Oh my, yes. It takes a great deal of time, as well as patience. And yes, it is worth the time invested.. When they come back on their own free will to give you a status update and are elated by their choice, it feels like a home run.

@MyNewtBoobs, Oh, but that’s the part that I consider most important. The earlier someone starts the easier it is to save a retirement. With simplified assumptions let’s look at the impact of time. The following are examples of saving $100 at various ages and what it will be worth at age 60. These assume 8% interest,

Age 35 $1,006
Age 25 $2,172
Age 18 $3,723
Birth $14,878

The conventional approach of wait until after you go to college, get married and buy a house surrenders so much potential. So to answer your question it is of tremendous importance to tell young people to save for retirement.

I’m an advocate for getting the retirement savings laws altered so parents can start a retirement account for their children by making a one time deposit of between $1,000 to $5,000 for children between the ages of birth to 5 years old.

Time is the most important and powerful factor in retirement savings.

Why you haven’t got 25 GAs for that one already I have no idea, @john65pennington.

Great advice from all.

@MyNewtBoobs, I would like to add, I think I might have some good advice about those things to. From wells of what to do (successes) and what not to do (failures) from my own experiences.

@john65pennington great answer. It plays into one of the core reasons I would like to do this. I didn’t feel the void of growing up without a father until I hit my twenties and made wrong decision or didn’t make decisions about things I needed to. I think I lost 5 to 8 years of life floundering. So if I can answer any questions for younger people who want advice or pearls of wisdom then I am willing.

@Mz_Lizzy, absolutely, teach them to fish not give them fish. Totally with you.

@WasCy, You have expert knowledge of Excel? :) Will you be my mentor, lol. I have a hard time finding any courses to teach me any more about excel that I don’t already know, and I suspect I just know the tip of the iceburg. I would love to find a super advanced course on the subject. I like your technique though so maybe I will make myself available for this as well.

Everyone, thank you again for your answers.

oh, correction on the future value of $100. I think I used 65 as the retirement age. Independent of retirement age I think my point is the same.

Also further clarification of the example.

35 $1006 – means, if you save $100 at age 35 it will be worth $1,006 at age 60.

Season, I do not think mentors receive degrees in college. Its something you earn and how you show yourself to other people. The projects are desperate for a father figure. Most of their parents are very leary of men who approach their children. The police uniform made the difference in my situation. This is when I carried the situation one step further and hopefully providied the children the missing male figure in their life.

Like I said, you have to earn your role as a mentor. When people learn to trust you and what you stand for, makes for a winning combination.

Good Luck. john

John, absolutely. I learned at an early age that there is a lot of advice out there but it needs to come from people who commited to see you through.