The power of mentoring is never exhibited in a greater way than hearing the perspective of the mentee. Below read the mentee who’s life was changed by mentoring:

“In secondary school I would say I was mischievous like all boys are at times, but at that point in my life, it was a very important stage for me in school. My exams were approaching; I was more focused on girls and other stuff, rather than books and my education. I was always able to do the work but was not fulfilling my full potential.

I was getting caught up in a lot of things that didn’t concern me, but because of the people I ‘rolled’ with or the type of person I am I was always labeled. Getting labeled is not a nice feeling, especially if it’s not you but it’s the feeling of looking like an outsider with your peers.

I can remember the day in school, when my Head Of Year came to my form and took me to her office. On the way to her office, all sorts of things were going through my mind but not once did mentoring run through it. When she initially told me I was going to start seeing a mentor, I didn’t know what to think but I was hearing a lot about mentoring floating around within school.

At first, I was very apprehensive as to why I would need mentoring and what for. Once I met the mentor and we had a meeting he told me what he expected from me and also what I expected from him if the relationship was too work. It was sort of like as if a new friendship/relationship had been formed without me even taking much attention to this at that stage.

As the sessions began to progress and I would see the mentor almost everywhere in the school, I also used to hear his voice in my head during lessons saying “Come on, do your best, you know you can do it! Only a few more months left and your school life will be done.”

Not once did I feel the mentor listened or stereotyped me in his views and opinions of me. He always had the best intentions for me and my education in and out of school. We would talk about a vast number of things during our sessions, gaining a lot of knowledge from his experiences through his life and the skills he was willing to share. He was seen as a teacher figure but more as our teacher / mediator.

He would negotiate with me and teachers to smooth out any problems, which were encountered within school. He was willing to relate to me on a personal level, valuing my opinion and making me not see things from one perspective but to look at the bigger picture. My relationship with the teachers dramatically changed after I had spoken to them. We shared our opinions and concerns whilst in the presence of the mentor.

They would see me in the corridors or around the school and would stop and talk to me, but not telling me off but asking if I needed any extra help in their lessons or with any work I had. I was beginning to pay more attention to the detail of my work especially in art and graphics.
Mentoring really helped me because it made me have someone there to talk to within school about absolutely anything. To have your opinion always valued and to feel welcomed to speak is always a good thing to have around you when growing up. Someone who is always willing to let you know experiences they had in their life whether good or bad is a key to guiding someone to choose whether they take it on board and acknowledge this.

Using the skills I gained and the impact mentoring had on me I went to college and studied it. I now work with children in primary and secondary schools. I have a strong passion for the work I do because to me “a mentor’s hindsight becomes a mentee’s foresight”. Wouldn’t it be good if every child could have a mentor?

Happy Mentoring

Taken from the book “Every Child Needs a Mentor”