Mentorship

Mentoring is a relationship between two people with the purpose of sharing life experience and knowledge from one person to another, typically between an older and younger individual.¹ In a 2013 United States study conducted in Washington by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation across seven mentorship agencies, mentoring was shown to be particularly beneficial to youth, improving social skills and academic performance, as well as relieving depressive symptoms in at-risk youth.² Three quarters of at-risk youth in the United States with a mentor report that they hoped to attend and graduate college, while over half of at-risk youth without mentors reported plans to attend college.³ Of those same populations, 45 percent of those with mentors actually enrolled in a college or university compared to just 29 percent of those without mentors who enrolled in college upon graduation.⁴