How to Honor Mentors

We have 35+ adults that come to our building each week to mentor students. We partner with Lutheran Social Services in recruiting, training, and managing the paperwork of this process.

These adults are fantastic. They are low maintenance and generous.

We do two specific things to honor their time.

First, at the high school level, the schedule can change from week to week. This means the lunch times can swing by as much as 15 minutes depending on what is going on in the building.

So I send out a text message to mentors who sign up through REMIND, a platform designed to efficiently communicate between educational stakeholders. They know the schedule and arrive when their student is ready.

Second, we closely monitor when a mentor comes to our building and the student is not present. At the high school level, the expectation is that the student and the mentor manage these appointments. If the mentor comes to school and the student is absent, I make it a big deal.

Students are to respect mentor’s time by communicating well. I play the bad cop in these situations and remind students to let their mentor know when they are going to be absent.

These two simple strategies are critical to mentors having a positive experience in our building.