Posted by eporter on January 9, 2025
Motivating Mentees to Participate and Engage in School
At the beginning of the new year, most youth are returning to school from a holiday break and entering a new semester. At this point in the academic year, it can be easy for students to feel burnt out or struggle to adjust back to a school schedule after a break. Mentors can help their mentees who are students combat burnout or negative academic outcomes by boosting their motivation to participate in school activities.
Below, we discuss how high-quality mentor training and resources can teach mentors strategies to boost their mentees’ motivation and engagement in school for better academic outcomes.
Promoting Enhanced Resilience & Learning (PERL)
PERL is a web-based mentor training course that teaches mentors how to support enhanced educational outcomes in their mentees through everyday interactions and teachable moments. The PERL course is strategically designed to help mentors motivate and empower their mentees for better academic outcomes using three main strategies:
By helping mentees develop a growth mindset so they believe that they are capable of learning and growing, mentors can help combat feelings of burnout in mentees at the beginning of a new semester and help mentees feel more motivated to participate in school. In addition, by setting goals for the new semester with their mentees, mentors can then encourage mentees to find specific ways they can achieve those goals, such as by participating more in class or attending more afterschool activities. PERL’s strategies to increase school engagement in mentees are also designed to help mentors empower and motivate mentees to decide to participate in school activities for their own well-being, not just because their mentor told them to do so.
Building Assets Together: A Guide for Youth Mentors (BAT Guide)
The BAT Guide directly addresses the recurring request of mentors for effective, useful suggestions of things to do with their mentees by providing them with a resource that contains a curated springboard of ideas of possible match activities. The BAT Guide uses a person-centered, asset-based approach to mentoring to help mentors incorporate their mentee’s individual needs, goals, interests, and strengths when planning activities to do with their mentee, and then, try to strengthen or grow these assets during their day-to-day interactions.
The BAT Guide was designed to follow the lifecycle of an approximately 10-month-long mentoring relationship that aligns with the academic school year, and the Guide provides activity suggestions and strategies to help mentors meet goals during each of the 10 months of the mentoring relationship. Several of these goals and strategies are particularly helpful for mentors who are trying to build motivation in mentees, including an entire section with strategies and activity suggestions to help mentors empower mentees to become more engaged in school. In addition, mentors discover how to promote positive peer friendships and healthy decision-making in their mentee, both of which are helpful for supporting a mentee in school. Like the PERL course, the BAT Guide is designed to help mentors motivate and empower mentees, so that mentees can make decisions on their own to engage in school, make healthy decisions, and improve their well-being.
To access training, strategies, tips, and activity suggestions for motivating mentees to become more engaged in school, click here to get started.