As a GSBF scholar, we expect you to be communicating with your mentors once every two weeks. It is up to you and your mentor to decide how you communicate: face-to-face, text, email, phone calls or something like a Google chat. We prefer face-to-face, but know that there are schedule complications, and issues of distance.
GSBF students should be responsive to their mentors and responsible about returning communications and keeping appointments. The mentors are all volunteers and you are a scholarship recipient. So, we do sort of put the responsibility on you to make sure the mentor is never having to chase you down to make communications happen. Make it work, and be sure to contact GSBF staff if you want help making the mentoring relationship better.
What is the purpose of your mentor?
A mentor is a person who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. Mentors can be coaches, role models, advocates, friends, career advisers and self esteem builders. A mentor isn’t a replacement parent, another teacher or a boss. GSBF provides mentors to our students for a few simple reasons:
1. Mentors are Valuable. Studies show, having a good relationship with a mentor increases a person’s success in high school, college and future career situations. We want our students to be successful.
2. Point of Contact. GSBF mentors are the primary contact between our students and the foundation. Of course our staff is always available to our students and we will see you at events and programs, but with more than 300 high school students in our program, 120 mentors help increase students’ points of contact.
3. Mentors Bring Experience. GSBF mentors are college students, come from a variety of professions as recent graduates to recent retirees. Mentors get to know one each other so that they can call on one another to ask questions about professions for the benefit of their students.