by Jean Rhodes Books and articles about mentoring often begin with a brief nod to Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey to explain its etymology. In the poem, the legendary Greek king Odysseus asks his old friend Mentor to watch over his house hold and son Telemachus before leaving to fight in the Trojan War. When […]

by Jean Rhodes A practitioner recently made an important point: unless there’s a specific reason—beyond scale or efficiency—programs should think twice before choosing group over one-on-one mentoring. Group mentoring should not be a workaround for capacity constraints. Instead, it can be a powerful strategy for advancing young people’s social skills and development, particularly when it […]

By Jean Rhodes In these dark and alienating times, it is critically important to feel like we “belong” somewhere. A sense of belonging is defined as “the experience of personal involvement in an environment such that one feels an integral part of that environment” (Hagerty et al., 1992, p. 173). It encompasses feeling accepted, valued, […]

By Jean Rhodes Mentors are the lynchpin of successful youth and student mentoring programs, yet too many volunteers feel disillusioned when their motivations are misaligned and their expectations don’t match reality. In their new study, researchers Tereza Brumovská and Bernadine Brady (2024) found that mentors’ initial motivations varied, ranging from intrinsic—driven by  personal fulfillment—to extrinsic–driven […]