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Mentor Requirements

Prospective Mentors

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Volunteer to be a mentor with us! No experience required.
We are looking for mentors with diverse goals and experiences, who will be able to meet the wide-ranging needs of rural youth. You don't have to be a perfect student or have your life figured out - as long as you are willing to share your mistakes and advice with your mentees.

Why be a mentor?​

  • eMentoring is low commitment, high reward: participate in the program on your own time and make a difference in the life of a rural youth.

  • Learn skills such as online communication, working with youth, handling difficult situations and building trust and rapport.

  • Get access to unique professional development opportunities. 

  • We love to help our mentors out by providing volunteer hour verifications and professional references (for jobs, co-ops, med school, grad school, etc.) - just ask!

 

As a mentor for ReMBC, you will be helping rural youth explore their options for after high school. You'll be asked to share your experiences, give advice, and provide support to rural high school students.

 

Mentor responsibilities include:

 

  • Mentoring rural youth one-on-one: Guide your mentee through an online curriculum that includes topics like well-being, post secondary, and careers. Communication happens via asynchronous messaging, so you can write your mentee messages whenever you want. However, you are required to respond to their messages within 3 days. Expect to spend 2-3 hours per week on this.

    • Learn more about how one-one-one mentoring works

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  • Virtual mentor visits: join a Zoom call with a group of rural youth. Share your journey to post-secondary, answer questions, and provide your perspective to a class of students. All mentors are required to volunteer for at least one visit per year. 

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Your Role as a Mentor

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Our mentees are attending high school outside the lower-mainland, Victoria, and Kelowna metro- areas of BC 

 

Most are participating as a requirement for their careers courses, though some participate voluntarily. 

 

Our mentees have a mixed bag of career and educational interests; though we do have mentees interested in STEM and humanities, we also have mentees interested in the fine arts, entertainment, and trades.

 

We try to match you to your mentee based on shared career interests, hobbies, experiences, and personal preferences. However, our mentees' interests are typically more diverse than our mentors, so you might have at least one match who is on a different path than yours. For example, you might be paired with a student who wants to be a welder, millwright, mechanic, or enter the workforce right after graduation. Think of it as an opportunity to learn from someone completely different than you. You'll get experience communicating with new and different demographics - a skill that could be valuable to your future career.  

About your mentees

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Rural students in BC have lower high school graduation rates, lower educational attainment, and are less prepared for post-secondary than their urban counterparts. Among the reasons is the relative lack of post-secondary graduates in rural communities, which means fewer role models who place a high value on education--in other words rural high school students don't know very many people who went to post-secondary, so they have fewer sources of information about their educational options. ReMBC aims to fill that gap by bringing post-secondary student mentors to rural communities. Moreover, since rural communities have a shortage of post-secondary educated workers, such as educators and healthcare professionals, we also hope that in learning more about life in rural communities, you might consider the advantages of spending some of your career in a rural area. 

Why Rural?

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How to Apply

Eligibility: you must be a post-secondary student either studying in BC, or if you are studying outside BC you must have graduated from a BC high school or have attended a BC post-secondary school for at least a year

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About the application process:

Our mentor pool is currently full. Please check back in August of 2023 for next year's intake, or send an email to e.mentoring@ubc.ca to be put on our contact list.

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If you are accepted you must complete online training and take a quiz on your own time. You must also complete Cultural Safety Training within 30 days of acceptance. 

We will also ask for proof of a Criminal Record Check, or help you complete one online free of charge. ​

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Then we will invite you to join the program on MentorCity, and you will eligible to be matched. The eMentoring staff will match you to a mentee when someone compatible becomes available. 

*Disclaimer:

  • Unsatisfactory results of the Criminal Record Check could result in dismissal from the program.

  • ReMBC reserves the right to ask for professional references if we deem it necessary.   

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