Six years later, those relationships remain an anchor of my personal and academic growth. We still speak regularly, and their pride in my progress reflects the care they invested early on.

Today, as a 20-year-old business student, I have mentored 25 high school students as they navigate academics, career exploration and the transition to higher education. This , I’d like to share some advice for mentors, based on my experiences.

Do not wait for young people to ask for mentorship

Though many students desperately need trusted adults outside their families who can offer guidance, perspective and encouragement, that Gen Z is to report having had a mentoring relationship. This is not because students lack interest; another found more than 70% of teens have turned to artificial intelligence for friendship and 50% use AI companions regularly. They simply don’t know what mentorship is supposed to look like or how to find it.

That was my experience. As a high school student, I did not know mentorship was something I could seek out. It entered my life because adults noticed my curiosity, followed up and encouraged me to stay connected.

One lesson I learned quickly is that mentors must explicitly say they are willing to maintain a relationship. Without that clarity, many students assume they are bothering adults by following up. Silence is often interpreted as disinterest. Saying something as simple as 鈥淚鈥檓 happy to stay in touch鈥� or 鈥淧lease reach out again鈥� gives students permission to remain engaged.

Offer guidance early, before pressure replaces curiosity

Students are expected to make life-shaping decisions early, often without the information needed to make them well. A found that fewer than half of Gen Z students felt they had enough information in high school to determine the best path after graduation. 

My early mentoring relationships in high school reshaped how I imagined my future. My mentors believed in me before I believed in myself. They raised my expectations and encouraged me to pursue opportunities I would not have considered, including interning while still in high school at Kaiser Permanente, applying to and attending USC and completing college internships at Kaiser and Making Waves Education Foundation.

That belief helped me see what was possible and maximize my potential before choices felt final.

Use your successes and failures as learning experiences. Both matter.

K-12 schools are places for developing . Teachers, counselors, coaches and volunteers can serve as mentors, building trust through everyday interactions. My mentors did not just share where they ended up. They told me how they got there, including uncertainty and detours. That honesty helped me make more informed decisions and see opportunity as something navigable, not abstract. They provided perspectives I still rely on today.

Your experience and vulnerability can be life-changing

Mentorship does not require seniority. I became a mentor while I was still learning. During my senior year of high school, I freshmen, working daily on organization, study habits and how to navigate challenges in and out of the classroom. Many of them had started the year unsure of themselves. By the end, they were more confident, engaged and willing to ask for help.

Mentorship is not about having perfect answers. It is about slowing down, being specific and remembering what it felt like to not know yet. The biggest impact comes when both mentors and mentees are transparent and honest about what they know and don’t yet know.

I continue to mentor high school students, and I am well equipped to do so because I navigated the process recently. I remember what was unclear, what was never explained and which decisions felt overwhelming without context. Sharing that knowledge while it is still current helps students make informed choices instead of guessing and trying to navigate critical decisions alone.

Treat mentorship like a continuous cycle

Knowledge flows in multiple directions, and mentorship works best when it is rooted in trust and humanity, not hierarchy. It’s not about having a title or attaining a certain level of success. Hearing about your experiences is often what students need most. Even information that feels obvious may be transformative for a student encountering it for the first time.

Every opportunity I have had is tied to someone who took the time to answer a question, offer guidance or remind me that I belonged in spaces I was still learning to navigate. As I move forward, I feel responsible to stay connected with those coming up behind me and offer the same clarity and encouragement. When knowledge is passed forward with care, it does more than support a single student. It creates momentum that carries entire communities forward.

These relationships are now in jeopardy. Recent federal cuts to education programs will directly impact initiatives like after-school programs, mentorship programs, and youth counseling services 鈥� critical resources that connect students with trusted adults who can guide them through difficult times.

Parents play a key role in their child鈥檚 wellbeing, of course, but they are not the only source of support for children and teens. that having a caring, reliable adult 鈥� whether a teacher, coach, mentor, tutor or neighbor 鈥� can profoundly impact a young person鈥檚 well-being and resilience.

These relationships matter. In a of over 130,000 students, those least susceptible to suicidal thoughts and bullying were those who reported having strong connections with not just their parents, but also other caring adults. found that students who felt supported by teachers were less likely to struggle with behavioral issues, even when facing bullying.

We鈥檝e long known that parents can help young people feel supported, validated, and equipped to handle adversity. But rates of parental burnout are increasing, with reporting that they feel completely overwhelmed. In 2024, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared parent burnout .

There鈥檚 never been a better time to recognize and invest in other adults who have a role to play in raising children. In addition to rising , children today face increasing and a lack of accessible resources and support services. 

Trusted adults can lessen these burdens. With the right training, a teacher, mentor, or other adult can provide invaluable emotional, psychological, and even academic support to children and teens. They can literally save lives, helping young people navigate adolescence with a sense of security and confidence. And : Adults who invest in children鈥檚 lives often find a renewed .

To be sure, trusted adults are not just anyone. We鈥檝e seen tragic instances of adults, both parents and non-parents, misusing their positions of trust; that has led to a growing awareness of the dangers of abuse or misconduct. Concerns about should always be taken seriously.

But fear should not prevent us from stepping up to help young people. 

Thankfully, that distinguish a truly trustworthy adult. They foster an environment of safety and trust. They listen without judgment, offer guidance, respect young people鈥檚 autonomy and empower them to explore solutions on their own rather than providing all the answers. By contrast, those who seek to exploit their role often resort to manipulation or controlling behavior. They may also demonstrate a lack of respect for boundaries or a tendency to dismiss concerns.

To increase the number of trusted adults in young people鈥檚 lives, it is critical to engage community members and support science-backed mentoring programs. For example, a school-based group counseling and mentoring program, has been improve school engagement and reduce violent crime involvement among young men. 

Programs like , a comprehensive youth development program, provide education, mentorship, and job training for young adults between the ages of 16 and 24, increase college enrollment, improve employment outcomes and promote civic engagement, . also provides mentorship that builds confidence and leadership skills for girls and young women, with research in both academics and behavior.

Expanding programs like these across a variety of interests 鈥� whether in visual arts, music, sports, or academics 鈥� can help ensure that all young people have access to mentors who can guide them, help them build self-esteem, and inspire them to develop their unique talents.

With less access to such programs, many young people will lose the mentors they need, as well as opportunities to engage in activities that nurture their personal growth, mental health, and leadership skills. This harms children and threatens the fabric of our society, leaving a generation without the tools they need to contribute meaningfully to our democracy. We need more programs, not fewer, and more people willing to step up to support our children. 

By recognizing the importance of trusted adults in the lives of children, we can create a broader safety net that extends beyond households, ensuring that young people receive the support they need to succeed and thrive. When we connect with the young people in our lives, we play a role in raising a generation that feels supported, as well as in creating a society that values connection, compassion, and the mental health and well-being of its young people.

The White House, which has faced criticism for not doing enough for students who fell dramatically behind in math and reading, had something to show for it Thursday. An estimated 323,000 college students, volunteers and school staff signed up 鈥� not only exceeding the administration鈥檚 goal, but hitting it ahead of schedule. 

鈥淭his problem is not getting solved by somebody in Washington D.C. We launched the vision. We sent out money,鈥� Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten said at an event to celebrate the milestone. But those resources, she said, 鈥渉elped to galvanize鈥� volunteers and staff at the local level. 鈥淚鈥檓 proud that we can see the results of this collective effort.鈥�

In the 2023-24 school year, over a quarter of principals reported offering more tutoring, mentoring or other support services than they did the previous year, according to a of over a thousand school leaders released ahead of the event. In all, roughly 24,500 schools added an average of 5.5 additional adults focused on supporting students.

While it鈥檚 too early to determine what effect the extra help had on student performance, over 30% of principals said they were able to employ research-backed, high-dosage tutoring, according to from the Rand Corp. That means trained tutors worked with the same students over time for at least 90 minutes per week.

Demand for tutors has received significant national attention, given students鈥� steep decline in learning. But the White House count also reflects a variety of added positions, including mentors to help re-engage chronically absent students and those who help students navigate college applications. About $20 million in federal relief money, flowing through AmeriCorps, the national service organization, fueled the partnership鈥檚 work. Districts also dipped in to other COVID funding to support the extra positions.

But the initiative, led by the National Partnership for Student Success at Johns Hopkins University, faces an uncertain future. Districts are using up what鈥檚 left of that money, and Republicans want to for AmeriCorps, as they have for years.

鈥淥ne hundred percent depends on the election,鈥� said Robert Balfanz, the Johns Hopkins professor who leads the partnership. He expects the effort to continue 鈥渋n some form鈥� if Vice President Kamala Harris wins. 

It鈥檚 unclear whether Donald Trump would do the same, but the educational effects of the pandemic will linger regardless of who鈥檚 in office, he said. 

鈥淲e have kids that are disengaged. We have kids that have greater out-of-school problems. We have kids that are more confused about what they want to do after high school,鈥� Balfanz said. 鈥淚t’s very hard to address those kids with your school staff alone.鈥� 

Launched six months after U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona issued the charge for more tutors, the initiative serves as a hub for connecting local groups and individuals to schools that need them. Some leaders from the partnership鈥檚 national network of 200 districts have tried new strategies to motivate students.

In hopes of reducing a chronic absenteeism rate of about 30%, Principal Scott Hale at Johnstown High School, north of Albany, New York, tapped existing staff members, like teaching assistants, secretaries and coaches, to serve as mentors.

鈥淪uccess mentors鈥� at the school are matched with students to better understand why they鈥檙e absent and what incentives might lure them back. Keeping track of absences on a simple paper calendar drives home how quickly they can add up, Hale said.

鈥淢any students don’t realize how many days they have missed until they see it,鈥� he said. Reducing schoolwide chronic absenteeism has been tough, he added. But over half of the 125 students with mentors increased their attendance. 鈥淭o see a kid improve from 80 absences to 30 is a huge win for us.鈥�

鈥楳ust be doing the right thing鈥� 

College students, who saw their own educations disrupted by the pandemic, have been integral to school recovery efforts, said Josh Fryday, for California Volunteers. 

鈥淭his generation experienced COVID in high school,鈥� Fryday said. 鈥淚 think they understand how important it is to be connected and have this extra support.鈥�

Devin Blankenship was among those who signed up for the organization鈥檚 College Corps. She was earning a degree in sociology from Vanguard University, south of Los Angeles, and wanted some nonprofit experience. To avoid commuting through Los Angeles traffic, she took a virtual tutoring position with Los Angeles-based Step Up Tutoring. 

Over the next year, she worked with a third grader from the Los Angeles Unified School District whose reading skills had been so severely impacted by school closures that he barely knew letter sounds. Before she could focus on a lesson, another student confided in Blankenship about getting bullied at school.

鈥淪tudents told me they were excited to come to tutoring for that hour,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 said, 鈥榃ow, I must be doing the right thing.鈥� 鈥� 

Blankenship鈥檚 experience also points to some of the challenges tutors have faced, especially in a district as large as Los Angeles. At times, she didn鈥檛 know where to go with questions about helping a student or working with a family. She said she had to initiate Zoom or phone calls with her supervisor for answers. 

There were also moments when she felt ill-equipped to help. She recalls watching YouTube videos on improper fractions late at night while trying to meet a midnight deadline for a college paper.

鈥淚 was like, 鈥楳an, I wish there were tutoring sessions for me,鈥� 鈥� she said.

With interest in a career in education, she sometimes felt frustrated that she didn鈥檛 have more interaction with students鈥� teachers. But those limitations didn鈥檛 drive Blankenship away. She now works as a teaching assistant in a special education class at Palms Elementary School in Perris, California, east of Los Angeles. She鈥檚 part of a program that fast-tracks interns into classroom positions to help address a teaching shortage.

鈥楽olved the problem鈥� 

In addition to giving future teachers practical experience, the national effort has spawned connections between tutoring organizations and college students looking for work. 

Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, struggled while schools were closed to find community service jobs for its students. Then an official who runs its federal work-study program learned about Step Up Tutoring through a local .

Pepperdine was 鈥渞eally interested in partnering with Step Up because we solved the problem for them,鈥� said Sam Olivieri, Step Up鈥檚 CEO. 鈥淲e were able during COVID to fill those community service slots through a virtual program.鈥�

Word of their partnership spread and Step Up Tutoring now draws college students from 17 institutions. Virtual tutoring options have helped universities meet Cardona鈥檚 2023 for higher education leaders to spend 15% of their work-study funds on community service 鈥� more than double the .

Olivieri thinks that the higher commitment from colleges to helping K-12 students will be a 鈥渄urable鈥� impact of the partnership鈥檚 work. 

Rand鈥檚 data shows that despite the additional funding and personnel, a third of principals said only some of the students who needed the services received them.

鈥淭he waters are not receding,鈥� Balfanz said at the event. 鈥淭he challenge remains.鈥�

Not many make it all the way through to graduation. And for those who do, even with a degree, entering the workforce can be equally difficult.

If they come from a family that struggles to make it from one paycheck to the next, they鈥檒l feel pressure to contribute right away, which may lead them to accept jobs below the education level they worked so hard to attain. First-generation graduates are 8% more likely to take a job that their bachelor鈥檚 degrees.

They need help, clearly. That鈥檚 why my organization, Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, has been running a College and Career Success Program for about five years. Some 600 students have participated in that time, and around 350 undergraduates 鈥� all of whom are former Littles in our other programs 鈥� are in this project now. The majority attend the State University of New York or City University of New York, but participants are enrolled at about 75 schools across the country. Most are in bachelor’s degree programs, but we support students at community colleges as well.

The idea is simple: Littles have the opportunity to opt into our College and Career Success Program while they are in high school. We help them identify colleges as juniors and apply, with the support of a counselor. After graduation, they’re able to formally join the program, which guarantees them support through college and into their first career job. They then connect with a mentor, or Big, who checks in on the students throughout their undergraduate years and ensures they have the support, guidance and resources they need to graduate. It is the role of the Bigs to explain their own journey and the help they accessed along the way. This is important because many students feel they have to do it on their own and that asking for help is a sign of weakness or failure. But in reality, no one succeeds alone.

Students and mentors have a monthly check-in guide that brings structure to their conversations around college persistence and success. These check-ins have themes that shift each semester, covering everything from navigating campus life to laying the foundation for success after graduation. They include understanding and accessing college life and resources; getting engaged on campus in ways that align with interests and potential career aspirations; identifying a peer group that can support overall college and career goals; and identifying opportunities on campus that can introduce a potential career path and bolster a resume. 

During the first two years of college, these check-in guides are meant to help students stay on track to graduate in a major they are interested in. Right now, it’s working for 82% of our college students.

The conversation shifts starting in the third year toward career exploration and access. We leverage corporate partners to offer what we call Career Pathways programming, which pairs college students with a mentor in an industry they are interested in. Career Pathways are done in cohorts with 15 students and 15 employees from a company or professional organization. They meet weekly for 10 sessions, where students learn about the different careers that exist in a particular industry.

Students have the chance to identify a career and then map out with their mentor actions they can take in college to build their resumes. They will also participate in informational interviews with someone who has the job they want and have an opportunity to connect with the entire cohort of mentors to build their professional network. We also ask mentors to share their professional networks and opportunities with the students.

It鈥檚 still early, but results are promising. We had our first graduating class last year, and 80% of participants left the program with a career job or internship. If those results continue, scholars in our program will make it to the finish line and be positioned well for the life that starts beyond it.Most professionals know that embarking on a path to career success takes more than just a degree. It also needs the helping hands and guidance of a network that can open doors that students might otherwise not have access to. The norms of campus life and college resources are unknown to most first-generation students, as is the concept and importance of networking. We hope this program helps level the playing field for these young people.

Research spanning several decades has shown that the seeds of opportunity are planted as early as elementary school. shapes students’ career aspirations and trajectories, while strong youth-adult relationships drive and . When students enter the job market, personal networks open doors to resources, opportunities and promotions. Studies suggest that approximately are obtained through personal connections, and having at least one connection at a company on LinkedIn makes an applicant to land a job than those who don’t. In short, mounting loneliness today widens long-standing opportunity gaps tomorrow.聽

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What will it take for schools and programs to invest in students鈥� relationships as both sources of belonging and bridges to opportunity? To answer this question, our team at the Christensen Institute conducted an 18-month of 20 career-connected learning programs. We sought to understand key factors that impacted schools鈥� and nonprofits鈥� ability to deepen and diversify students鈥� social capital 鈥� that is, access to relationships and the ability to cultivate them. Here are three lessons that can help schools and career-connected learning programs unlock the power of relationships.

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Use what you鈥檝e got

Many educators lack the time and resources to develop networking activities from scratch. The good news is that schools are awash in relationships. Educators can double down on deepening those connections through activities that students are already engaged in. For example, rather than a typical guest speaker format in which an industry professional delivers a pre-prepared speech, speakers can engage in a dialogue where students talk about themselves and their career aspirations. Teachers can then create opportunities for students to get back in touch by re-engaging guest speakers on future projects or lessons where their expertise is relevant. In fact, found that teens who engaged in career-oriented conversations with industry professionals earned higher-than-expected wages at age 26. For students participating in internships or apprenticeships, educators can use role-playing exercises to help them develop deeper, more enduring relationships with worksite supervisors and colleagues.

Take, for example, EmployIndy, an Indiana-based nonprofit offering apprenticeship programs for high schoolers. To broaden students鈥� networks, EmployIndy leaders asked mentors who work directly with student apprentices to incorporate discussions about professional relationships into their regular check-ins. They also created a competition to motivate students to start creating professional networks and encouraged employer-based supervisors to help students build social capital in the workplace. These types of strategies are an easy lift, but powerful in tapping latent reservoirs of opportunity.聽

Prioritize experience over explanation

Simply teaching students about the power of networks as a concept won鈥檛 cut it. Social capital needs to be part of their everyday experience. When Kupu, a Hawaii natural resources nonprofit, presented a slideshow to help students understand the research behind social capital, the initial response was underwhelming. Student surveys revealed that engagement with those lessons paled in comparison to out-of-classroom experiences such as college and worksite field trips.

Kupu pivoted to integrate opportunities for relationship-building into worksite visits by creating time for interaction with professionals. To build students’ confidence ahead of time, Kupu created opportunities for practice career chats. After the visits, students were asked to reach back out to at least two people for more in-depth conversations about their interests. That experience proved fruitful: 83% of students reported feeling very confident in their ability to follow up with new acquaintances to talk about careers.

Pair skill-building with access to relationships

Building social capital hinges on the ability of schools and programs to play two distinct roles: brokering access to relationships and building students鈥� relationship skills. However, some teachers found that providing access before honing students鈥� communication skills diminished their confidence in building new connections.

Generation Schools Network, a Colorado nonprofit focused on community- and career-connected learning, aimed to reduce students鈥� fears about having conversations with adults they hadn鈥檛 met before. They gave middle and high school teachers a series of interactive and engaging communication lessons involving role-playing scenarios, opportunities to practice with peers and trusted adults, and dialogue with students around the anxiety inherent in talking with people they don鈥檛 know. Teachers used these activities to prepare students for a project in which they collaborated with local businesses to solve complex problems such as food insecurity and wildlife conservation. Follow-up surveys revealed that 87% of teachers reported that the activities increased students’ communication skills and confidence when talking with businesspeople.

Balancing access and skills is crucial for building and maintaining students鈥� confidence as they begin to develop professional networks. To unlock students’ potential, schools and programs must not only provide access to connections, but empower them to use those opportunities effectively. Strong networks are a buffer against the inevitable twists and turns of life and career.

New research being released today aims to change that by focusing explicitly on the effects of in-school mentoring. The , circulated as a working paper through Brown University鈥檚 Annenberg Institute for School Reform, finds that high school students with mentors tend to earn better grades, stay in school longer, and make more money than peers who are otherwise similar to them. Unfortunately, the lower-income students who seem to benefit the most from mentoring at school are also the least likely to receive it.

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The paper builds on that has detected significant benefits from providing mentors to kids. But that work has usually looked at structured and well-known programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters, which draws together adults and children who are both expressly looking to establish connections. Matthew Kraft, an economics professor at Brown and one of the study鈥檚 authors, said that the webs of 鈥渘atural mentoring鈥� in school environments represent a much more common phenomenon that needs to be investigated in its own right.

鈥淣atural mentoring 鈥� when students and adults in school buildings develop relationships that go beyond the formal role of the teacher in the classroom or a coach on the athletic field 鈥� happens far more frequently than the ways in which we offer formal mentoring,鈥� Kraft said. 鈥淪o we need to understand the degree to which that matters for kids, where it’s happening, and where it’s not happening.鈥�

But Kraft and his co-authors, University of Virginia psychologist Noelle Hurd and Anneberg research analyst Alex Bolves, faced a problem. Natural mentoring is, if not random, organic and difficult to replicate: You can鈥檛 design a research trial that will offer identical doses of care and attention to kids in schools and then compare them with a control group.

To help overcome those issues, the team turned to a huge data set, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Commonly called 鈥淎dd Health,鈥� the project was launched in the 1994-95 academic year to track a nationally representative sample of over 20,000 middle- and high-schoolers as they aged into early adulthood. Waves of in-home interviews with participants have revealed countless details of their home and social lives over nearly three decades, including their relationships with adults. All told, over 15 percent identified a teacher, coach, or school counselor as an important mentor, with 80 percent of those saying that their mentorship persisted past high school.

Determining the effects of all that mentoring required the researchers to use a variety of statistical methods. They studied the academic records of students from before and after they connected with their mentor; examined similar pairs of adolescents including 1,213 twins and triplets, 1,378 students who named one another as best friends, and 548 students who engaged in romantic relationships with one another; and they controlled for a host of demographic factors including race, gender, disability and immigration status, family structure and household income.

In the end, the data pointed to a clear, wide-ranging set of benefits resulting from mentorship. Students with mentors gained between .06 and .48 points of grade point average, were between 18 and 35 percent less likely to fail a course, and were 10 to 25 percentage points more likely to attend college. Turning to workplace outcomes, the authors estimate that mentorship may boost the annual earnings of students by between $1,780 and $5,337. Those effects compare favorably to some of the most effective education interventions that have been studied, including high-quality pre-K and lower class sizes.

Kraft cautioned that these associations between in-school mentoring and improved short- and long-term circumstances should not be regarded as clear causal evidence. But they offered the 鈥渕ost robust empirical evidence to date鈥� of the importance of school-based mentoring, he said 鈥� and they fall in line with existing evidence, both from formal mentoring programs and the lived experience of many people.

“None of our methods are gold standard, and we can鈥檛 definitively say without a doubt that natural mentoring causes the outcomes we observe to improve,鈥� Kraft said. 鈥淗owever, we are able to leverage multiple approaches to account for the biases we think might be present. And across all the approaches, we can’t make what appear to be the benefits of natural mentoring go away.鈥�

鈥楽ize of these effects is amazing鈥�

Unfortunately, the Add Health data was equally clear that not all K-12 students benefit to the same extent from strong relationships with adults at school. Roughly 15 percent of white participants and 20 percent of Asian -American participants said they had experienced in-school mentoring; roughly 12 percent of African -American and Latino males, and about 10 percent of African -American and Latino females, said the same.

Class was also a noteworthy factor: Over 17 percent of students from more affluent families reported the existence of an in-school mentor, compared with just 12.5 percent of students from less affluent families.The divergence is especially damaging because the apparent effects of mentoring, including reduced course failures and greater college attendance, are significantly larger for children of lower socioeconomic status.

In this aspect, the study鈥檚 findings closely coincide with those of , this one examining a more formal mentoring system in Germany. That experiment looked at over 300 high schoolers from 10 cities who were paired with university undergraduates through a program called Rock Your Life! The younger students were drawn from schools in each city鈥檚 lower academic track, making them much less likely to attend college. But after years of collecting data, researchers found that receiving mentoring had delivered substantial improvements to their math grades, social skills and declared willingness to attain a workplace apprenticeship.

Ludger Woessmann, a professor of economics at the University of Munich and one of the study鈥檚 co-authors, told 社区黑料 that those positive effects accrued almost exclusively to poorer students; in contrast with Kraft鈥檚 work, which found the benefits of mentoring to be universal, if weighted somewhat toward the economically disadvantaged, the German experiment showed that more affluent participants received almost no benefits.

鈥淭he size of these effects is amazing,鈥� Woessmann said. 鈥淚t’s somewhat hard to quantify exactly what they mean, but they are huge. And I think it’s a very gratifying result because we really see in all these dimensions 鈥� some of these are subjective things, but school grades come from official data 鈥� they are really improved, big time. So what we learn is that the life outcomes [of disadvantaged students] are malleable.鈥�