Entries by Jean Rhodes

Childhood mentors have positive impact on career success

by Matt Shipman New research from North Carolina State University finds that young people who have had mentors are more likely to find work early in their careers that gives them more responsibility and autonomy — ultimately putting them on a path to more financially and personally rewarding careers.“We wanted to look at the long-term […]

Big Brothers Big Sisters Announces new CEO

From Denise Ouellette Chair, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada I am pleased to announce the arrival of the new President & CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada: Steve Jones. Steve is a senior executive with over 25 years of experience in both the private and public sectors. In addition to careers at Apple […]

Mentoring in the Digital Age: A survey and guidelines

Download the full paper here! Last year, the Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring hosted a pre-summit short course on Mentoring in the Digital Age. The short course was packed with thoughtful presentations by leading scholars and lively discussions about the impact of social media on mentoring relationships. Post-doctoral fellow Sarah Schwartz unveiled the results of an ambitious, […]

Communicating as a Movement: Next webinar on Nov. 20th

Next Live Webinar National Mentoring Month: Communicating as a Movement Thursday, November 20, 2014 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM EDT How loud can we be as a mentoring movement?…very loud if we all join forces for National Mentoring Month! The Collaborative Mentoring Webinar Series is committed to helping programs prepare to participate in National Mentoring […]

New study highlights importance of close relationships

Posted by Fariss Samarrai-Virginia U. VIRGINIA (US) — We are hardwired to feel empathy because we closely associate people who are dear to us—friends, spouses, lovers—with our very selves, brain scans show. “With familiarity, other people become part of ourselves,” says James Coan, University of Virginia psychology professor who used functional magnetic resonance imaging brain […]

Beyond “how’s it going?”: A new questionnaire assesses mentors’ satisfaction

Rhodes, J., Schwartz, S., & Wu, M. (2014) Validating a Mentoring Relationship Quality Scale: Does Match Strength Predict Match Length. Youth & Society. 1-14 by Jean Rhodes Remarkably few studies have focused on mentors’ experiences in relationships. To address this gap, my colleagues and I designed and validated a mentor-reported measure of relationship quality. The result is a new […]

Fall 2014 Short Course Broadcast Online

Due to the high volume of registration requests and limited seating capacity we will be broadcasting the upcoming fall 2014 Short Course Strengthening Links Between Formal and Informal Mentoring live through the online service Livestream. Viewers will need to create a free Livestream account before they are able to access the online stream broadcast. The Short Course broadcast stream […]

Back by popular demand: How to win friends and influence mentees

by Jean Rhodes Nearly 80 years after its publication, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People remains one of the best-selling books of all time (30 million copies!). This led me to wonder whether some of the interpersonal skills that Carnegie highlights might be helpful to the millions of mentors working with today’s youth? The answer is […]

How natural mentoring relationships support gay, bisexual, and questioning male youth

Torres, R.S., Harper, G.W., Sanchez, B., & Fernandez, M.I. (2012). Examining Natural Mentoring Relationships (NMRs) among Self- Identified Gay, Bisexual, and Questioning (GBQ) Male Youth. Child and Youth Service Review, 34 (1), 8-14. Summarized by Chelsea Kearin, CEBM Editorial Associate Introduction: Many gay, bisexual, and questioning (GBQ) teenagers experience isolation and hostility due to persistent […]

10 LGBTQ Resources for Mentors

Editor’s Note: Recent research findings (e.g. Patrick Tolen’s 2013 meta-analysis) imply that mentors should be advocates for their mentees. In previous discussion of what advocacy means, Professor Renée Spencer suggests that one form of advocacy is a mentor leveraging his or her resources on behalf of their mentee. As we approach National Coming Out Day (NCOD) this […]