What is a Mentor? How can they help me?

A mentor is typically defined as an older or more experienced person — other than a person’s parents — who provides guidance and support to a younger or less experienced mentee. Mentors typically don’t include romantic partners.

But other than that, almost anyone can be a mentor. Sometimes people feel emotionally very close to their mentor, other times it’s more of a professional relationship. And mentoring relationships can grow in almost any setting — including extended families, schools, extracurricular activities, workplaces, or places of worship.

Relationships with mentors can take on lots of different forms:

• A professor or instructor who provides extra academic support or career advice
• An academic advisor who gave you information about general and major requirements and how to navigate college, often seeing you informally between meetings if you needed to ask a quick question
• A family friend who helps you think through problems and challenges

Take a second to think about a person or people in your life that might fit the definition of a mentor. If no one comes to mind, that’s OK – that’s what this program is all about! Continue when you’re ready.