What’s Expected of You as a Mentor for a IDYCA Student?
If you agree to be a Mentor for a specific student, or want to be considered for a Mentor position with a student that you don’t know personally, you’re making a commitment of time, attention, and some expense. We can’t quantify any of these, however, in terms of the potential impact you could have on a young person’s life, the cost is negligible and the rewards are immense. This is not a token or nominal position, and you can plan on the following:
- Maintain weekly contact with the student/Mentee during the Residential Phase, primarily by letter or e-mail.
- Participate in at least one of the two scheduled Zoom calls with your student/Mentee during the Residential Phase. The Mentor Coordinator will contact each Mentor with specific dates and times, after acceptance as a Mentor.
- *After graduation*, maintain weekly contact with the student/Mentee for the next 12 months, with a minimum of four hours of personal contact each month.
- Once a month, you will submit a brief online report of the student/Mentee’s progress.
*This is when the student/Mentee needs you the most, and when good mentoring is critical to their continuing and future success.
Goals of Mentoring a Student/Graduate of the IDYCA:
- Create a positive one-on-one relationship built on trust, honesty, and open communication.
- Maintain regular/on-going contact with the student throughout the program, helping them keep their focus and effort in building, implementing, and attaining the goals they set for themselves while attending the Academy.
- Help the student understand and embrace the positive values and traits of a responsible citizen and a successful student, employee, parent, etc.
- Provide advice and general guidance, as the student makes decisions and deals with the inevitable issues and challenges of life after they graduate.
- Maintain faithful communication with your IDYCA Advocate/Case Manager to report how the relationship is going, how the Cadet is doing on their Action Plan, and receive encouragement, advice, and up-to-date scholarship opportunities for your Cadet.