Connection, Exposure, & Opportunity: What Our Recovery Will Require
by Jean Eddy, President & CEO, American Student Assistance and David Shapiro, CEO, MENTOR
As we seek to recover and rebuild a more inclusive, equitable and thriving economy, we must radically reshape our approach to our future workforce. We need to ensure that more young people are exposed to a broader set of possibilities, more pathways are opened, and ultimately, that both are paired with navigation and support. While this most definitely applies to classroom learning, it is also just as important that young people are learning about themselves, uncovering their interests and passions, and aligning those with future careers and other endeavors.
Our two organizations are grounded in the belief that invested adults — mentors — play a crucial role in helping to open doors and provide stable co-navigation as young people travel through journeys of discovery, challenge, belonging, and purpose.
When two organizations share perspectives and strengths, the result can reveal the potential and possibility of new integrated approaches. American Student Assistance (ASA) finds itself, after decades helping students finance college, refocused on early career exploration and helping young people find their pathway. MENTOR has sought to build and lead a movement to prioritize quality, supportive relationships for all our young people. In listening and learning from each other, one central tenet has become a clarion call made even more relevant by the way we must reshape our societal and economic beliefs as we emerge from this pandemic. We must ensure that all young people have the exposure, connection, and opportunity to develop a boundless sense of occupational possibilities and the human connection to better understand and navigate to these possibilities as well as adjust their sights. Imagine if the promise of every high school graduate was a network of people to help and guide resulting in an attainable post high school plan. This certainly happens for some students, but it is by no means a guarantee for the majority.
The realities of modern life and challenges posed by this pandemic have moved many people into their own corners, undermining shared perspective and opportunity. Technology has played a key role in connecting young people to engaging learning platforms as well as remote classrooms and teachers. Mentoring has an opportunity to expand and play an important role in serving young-people in this tech-enhanced environment. Together, young people and caring adults can build relationships on shared interests and experiences, bilateral coaching, and new perspectives.
A range of organizations and researchers have shown this to be possible — before and during the pandemic — from ASA’s own Futurescape to ICouldBe to Beyond 12. Human connection both enabled by technology and in person is a key ingredient to growth opportunities for thousands upon thousands of young people. And it’s very much a two-way street, giving just as much to mentors as mentees.
As we consider mentoring’s place in our society, a word we keep returning to is “amplify.” The concept is the key to mentoring’s role. When someone shares their time, experience and care in a mentoring relationship, it creates ripples — like a pebble tossed into a pond. Mentoring is most effective when experience and inspiration are shared in a back and forth communication, opening and amplifying the possibilities of a mentee and the life experience of the mentor. The ultimate goal is about building a bond and connecting the potential of young person with who they can become.
At MENTOR and ASA, we are committed to connecting young people with active and engaged mentors everywhere they live, learn, work, and play. We pledge to amplify those efforts, expand the cause of mentoring and ultimately influence the systems that structure society. By working with strong local leadership to provide the tools and resources needed to deeply engage communities and make real change, we are building a movement powered by possibilities. Mentoring can take many forms, including one-on-one and group mentoring, formal and informal.
In 2019 and 2020, MENTOR piloted the Youth Advocates for Mentoring, a program for young leaders to hone their advocacy, policy, and grassroots organizing skills and create lasting change in their communities. In addition, these youth advocates engaged in a mentoring relationship for continued support. In talking about what has been most helpful about that relationship, one youth advocate shared, “What has helped me the most is having a mentor there for reassurance. You don’t have to tell me all the answers. It’s having someone here to learn with me.” So many individuals can make effective mentors and should grab this opportunity.
We believe deeply in nurturing and sustaining the opportunity for student-centered models that generate trust — both offline and online — through a focus on having a meaningful relationship with a caring adult. Every mentor and mentee have the tools and abilities that make the relationship so rich. Mentoring has the power to improve lives. Become a mentor, support mentoring organizations and spread the word. To create this societal and economic progress, it will require actions from all of us. Mentoring amplifies change, one relationship at a time. Are you ready to join the mentoring movement?
