Finding a Mentor: How Students Can Build a Great Relationship with a Teacher

There’s no doubt about it: You have dreams, you set goals, and you’re more than willing to work hard to achieve them throughout your academic career.

So why, with a sea of student peers all around you, do you still feel a little bit unmoored and adrift? You sometimes need a little insight and guidance about your studies and the direction that you’re going, and you’re not sure where to turn.

It may be time to find a mentor among your teachers.

Why Having a Mentor Is So Important

As a high school student, having a mentor can help you hone in on your passions and find an advocate who will support your quest for admission to your favorite college. As a university undergrad, a mentor can pave the way for exciting academic challenges and advanced career opportunities after you graduate.

For both high school students and college students, mentors:

• Offer insights about their own experiences that can help a student work through some of the bigger choices they need to make about their futures
• Help students identify their aptitudes, their passions and their life purposes, and provide emotional support as they work through their academic journey
• Serve as the voice of wisdom (or challenge your perceptions) when you’re struggling to see your way forward through a difficult academic period

Plus, mentors may also assist some students with choosing their independent research projects or finding a topic for their college application essays. Mentors who are willing to write recommendation letters can even tip the scales in a student’s favor when it comes time for college admissions.

How to Find a Mentor Among Your Teachers

We’ve established that guidance from a valued mentor can boost your confidence and your chances of obtaining your academic and career goals. So, how do you find the right mentor and begin to develop that relationship?

Start by following these tips:

1. Put yourself out there. Join academic clubs headed by the teachers you think you may want as mentors. Volunteer for extra projects. Get involved with activities that will allow you to interact with potential mentors outside of your regular classroom experience.
2. Speak up. You’ll have a difficult time establishing a mentor-mentee relationship if you never express yourself to your teachers. You want a mentor who is willing to invest in you as a person, and that means sharing your hopes, your fears, your setbacks and your achievements.
3. Choose carefully. Once you’ve gotten a better feel for your network of potential mentors, start asking yourself a few critical questions. Who do you feel can offer you the best guidance about your academic future? Who has faced challenges similar to your own? Who seems to share your interests or really “get” you as a person?

The final step may be the scariest thing you ever do as a student: You need to ask your teacher to mentor you! Sometimes a mentor-mentee relationship will develop organically, without any formal discussion, but that’s not usually the case.

When you approach the teacher you want as a mentor, be prepared: Explain why you think they have the experience and wisdom that can help you along your journey and flat-out ask if they’re willing to meet with you occasionally in the future to discuss your progress and goals. If they agree, you now have an opportunity to begin building the mentor-mentee relationship in earnest.