Be a mentor

or find one!

What exactly is mentoring?
A mentor is someone who provides another person with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement and constructive example.

Mentors are good listeners, people who care, people who want to help bring out strengths in others - strengths that are already there. Mentors are neither fairy godmothers, parents, social workers, nor baby-sitters.

What are the benefits of mentoring?

• It's fun.
• It's simple.It makes a profound difference in another's life.
• Sharing the benefit of your experiences with someone else, is a great way to give back to the community.
• People who have been a part of mentoring programs say it's the best thing that's ever happened to them.
• It makes you feel good.

How do I become involved?
Place your request to Mentor or be Mentored, on the related Discussion Board.

How much time is required?

• It takes so little to make such a big difference.
• The time that you spend is arranged between you - the Mentor and Mentored.
• You don't have to create much time in your busy schedule - where possible, just incorporate these activities into your routine.

Who are the mentored?
People need mentoring in many stages of life and personal development.

• Youngsters who lack the opportunity to study, and are in need of additional guidance and support from a special friend - someone outside their immediate family.
• Students without the necessary connections to get started on the corporate ladder.
• Women stuck below glass ceilings.
• Young mothers juggling babies and careers.
• The talented in arts and sciences, who were born into a wrong set of circumstances.
• Those running a business for the first time.
• People of various ages, struggling within poverty - for whom a self-made man or woman would be an angel in disguise.
• Retirees wrestling with computers and the Internet, who could do with an eager young mind helping them along.

The list is endless, and we'd love you to send us more ideas to add here.

What is sure, they come from every racial, ethnic, religious, and socio-economic background, harboring talents, which could well remain buried - without the outstretched hand of a Mentor.

What does a mentor bring to the party?
HIS/HER VIEW OF THE WORLD. This is the greatest added value, so often overlooked.

When we are exposed to how another person views possibilities and opportunities, WE GROW.

In many cases, just having someone to call on for advice, is all that's required.