Posted by eporter on February 18, 2026
Stay in Touch with Mentoring Central After the 2026 National Mentoring Summit
Mentoring Central, a division of innovation Research & Training (iRT), was pleased to connect with mentoring program staff members, researchers, and professionals in the field of mentoring at MENTOR’s 2026 National Mentoring Summit.
Mentoring Central Research Scientist Dr. Rebecca Stelter co-presented a workshop at the Summit with Miles Allen, Director of Friends of the Children. During the workshop, entitled, “Using Design Thinking to Create Impactful Mentor Training to Promote Teen Mentee Academic Success,” Dr. Stelter and Allen discussed how a design thinking approach can be applied to developing training for mentoring programs. Attendees also learned key strategies for mentoring adolescents to support their academic success as well as how to motivate and engage youth who appear to be disinterested in their school experience.
Mentoring Central also exhibited at the 2026 Summit to share our research participation opportunities, resources for mentoring programs, and connect with others in the field.
If you attended this workshop or connected with Mentoring Central researchers at the Summit, we would like the opportunity to stay in touch with you. We invite you to sign up for any of iRT’s newsletters and email communications at https://irtinc.us/#newsletter. To contact a researcher or staff member at iRT, email us at info@irtinc.us for their contact information.
To browse Mentoring Central’s resources for mentoring programs, view our 2026 catalogue by clicking here.
iRT also develops and evaluates programs related to media literacy education, mindfulness, substance misuse prevention, sexual health promotion, violence prevention, and more. To learn more about our work, visit https://irtinc.us/.