• Why We Need Mentoring Programs
• What is Mentoring?
• What Does a Mentor Do?
• Designing Your Program
• Recruiting/Screening Mentors
• Recruiting Participating Students
• Training and Retaining Mentors
• Matching Mentors with Students
• Program Kick-off Event
• Managing Your Program
• Funding Your Program
• Evaluating Your Program
• Marketing

Matching Mentors with Participating Students

Once you have identified those who would make good mentors and have notified them of their acceptance, you can begin the process of matching them with participating students. (They will not meet their assigned students until after they have completed the pre-service training session, however.) In the case of one-on-one mentoring, you will be matching one mentor with one student. You will follow the same procedure if you are using small group or team mentoring in which the ratio is one mentor per four students. Decisions tend to be based on similarities between the mentor and the student.

Which of the following characteristics will you consider in matching mentors to students?

• Gender
• Race
• Shared background or experience
• A relationship between the mentor’s expertise and the student’s interests
• Personality/temperament
• Approval of student’s parents
• Availability for scheduling¹

What information do you need students to provide on their program application for you to place them successfully with an appropriate mentor? (See sample application form.)

^1. Adapted from Yes, You Can: Establishing Mentoring Programs to Prepare Youth for College. US Dept of Education Partnership for Family Involvement in Education, 1998.