Posted by eporter on March 10, 2025
Tips to Help Mentors Become Advocates for their Mentees
When volunteering for a mentoring program, mentors take on a responsibility to support their mentee as they work towards their goals or face challenges. This often includes providing their mentee with emotional support, doing fun activities with their mentee that support their goals, or giving them advice when asked. However, mentors also have the opportunity to expand upon these roles and potentially open new doors for their mentee by becoming an advocate for their mentee.
To begin advocating for their mentee, mentors must discover how they can use their own voice, skills, connections, or position in ways that help their mentee achieve their goals. Below, we have outlined tips to help mentors learn how they can advocate for their mentees so they can start supporting their mentee in new ways.
Tip 1: Put your mentee first.
Advocating for a mentee starts with a mentee-first mindset. Mentors should take time to learn their mentee’s aspirations and areas for growth and ask their mentee how they can help. Then, they are better prepared to analyze how they can use their own assets to advocate for their mentee in ways that suit their mentee’s specific needs. While it may be easy for mentors to believe they already know what is best for their mentee, making decisions to advocate for their mentee based on personal biases or preconceived notions could end up harming the mentee or hindering their growth. Mentors should aim to become aware of their personal biases and use a mentee-first mindset to advocate for their mentee in ways that are in their mentee’s best interest, not serving another purpose or someone else’s best interest.
Using a mentee-first mindset may be particularly important for mentors who are matched with a mentee from a marginalized background. Mentees who are part of historically marginalized communities can benefit from a mentor who advocates for them in the face of racism and/or discrimination; however, mentors should first aim to develop critical consciousness and cultural competency so they can advocate for their mentees in ways that uplift them rather than further expose them to direct or indirect discrimination. Read more in Mentoring Central’s blogs on cultural competency and critical consciousness.
Building the Foundation for STEM Mentors is a web-based training program that is designed to help mentors in STEM mentoring programs learn to advocate for their mentees and support their mentee’s interests in STEM. The program incorporates concepts of critical consciousness, cultural competency, and advocacy to help mentors learn how to effectively support a mentee who is underrepresented in STEM fields. Learn more about the program: https://mentoringcentral.net/stem-mentors/.
Tip 2: Connect your mentee.
After learning about their mentee’s aspirations and needs, mentors can introduce their mentee to their own professional or personal connections that may be helpful to their mentee. For example, if a mentor has a friend who works in their mentee’s career field of interest, introducing their mentee may help them learn more about the career they are interested in or find opportunities to gain internship or volunteer experience in the field. When speaking to people who may be beneficial connections for their mentee have, mentors should aim to speak positively about their mentee. Mentors can open even more doors for their mentee by making others aware of their mentee’s strengths.
In addition to personal and professional connections, mentors can refer their mentee to resources or services that they are aware of that may benefit their mentee. For example, a mentor can make their mentee aware of local mental health resources or counseling centers if their mentee expresses the need for more support for their mental health.
Tip 3: Show up for your mentee.
“Showing up” for a mentee can mean much more than being present at match meetings or important events in a mentee’s life. Mentors can “show up” and advocate for their mentee by contributing to decision-making at their mentee’s school or court system when decisions are made that affect their mentee.
Mentors can also “show up” for their mentee by staying connected with important figures in their mentee’s life, such as teachers, coaches, and parents. These connections give mentors opportunities to stay up-to-date on challenges their mentee is currently facing in the classroom, at extracurricular activities, or at home so the mentor can better understand how to advocate for their mentee. These connections may also provide opportunities for coaches, teachers, and parents to learn from the mentor’s insight so they can better support the mentee as well.
Mentoring Central provides training to help mentors and parents understand their unique roles related to the mentoring relationship as well as how to maintain healthy boundaries when they are connected. Learn more about Building the Foundation for Mentors and Building the Foundation for Parents.
Advocating for a mentee may look different for each mentor; however, using these tips and empowering their mentee to advocate for themselves as well can help mentors expand opportunities for their mentee to help them achieve positive growth.