Mentorship in the Digital Age
Mentoring programs are being expanded and transformed through the use of online tools, giving young people around the world a valuable connection.
A growing e-mentoring movement is using technology to overcome safety and funding concerns, as students from poverty-stricken backgrounds and mentors they haven’t met face-to-face struggle to connect and build meaningful relationships.
I Could Be: Connecting At-Risk Youth with Mentors
New York-based nonprofit I Could Be, an online mentoring program for at-risk middle and high school students, has helped more than 23,000 students in the past decade discover their passions and take action to realize their career and educational goals.
I Could Be volunteers provide emotional support and life coaching to boost at-risk youth, helping them move beyond the basic desire to graduate high school to realize individualized career and post-secondary educational goals.
For example, since 2003, E*TRADE Financial Corporation employees have supported I Could Be, contributing 40,000 service hours as academic, career, college and financial literacy mentors.
“Knowing that the time they spend mentoring each week can truly change a young person’s life makes our employees proud of E*TRADE’s association with icouldbe.org,” said Celie Niehaus, vice president and chief compliance officer at E*TRADE Bank.
The Digital Advantage
Kate Schrauth, the executive director of I Could Be, says digital mentoring has advantages for students who have grown up with computer technology. The online nature of the communication also lowers barriers that would need time to erode in a face-to-face mentoring situation.
“Kids today are digital natives,” said Schrauth. “Their comfort level with building relationships online is through the roof. What we find is that the technology is such a leveler — that the kids are not afraid to ask (mentors) the questions they really want to know: ‘How much money do you make? What’s your average day like? How many hours do you have to sit there at a desk?'”
Founding and Expansion
I Could Be was founded in 2000 by Adam Aberman, who had taught at inner-city schools in New York and Los Angeles. The nonprofit works with hundreds of school across the country, and its partnerships with companies like E*TRADE and Monster.com help recruit mentors for students in grades 7-12. The program’s online curriculum offers those with busy schedules opportunities to give back to their communities by logging in from any computer on their own schedule for a minimum of one hour.
The Infinite Family: A Global Approach
Another e-mentoring program, The Infinite Family, takes the concept to a global level, linking hundreds of South African children with mentors from all over the world using video-chat and other Web tools. The mentors spend at least 30 minutes each week with the kids, many of whom have lost their parents to HIV and AIDS.
“If none of the adults you care about has ever lived past 35, then why would you think you can?” said program founder Amy Stokes earlier this year. “I knew we had to find a way to bring new information, resources and the caring, nurturing effect of other adults into the lives of (these) children.”
Most of Infinite Family’s Net Buddies live in shacks without running water or electricity, with parents or guardians that are either unemployed, too sick to care for them or dealing with significant family problems. In this program, the mentors become the children’s lifeline as they cope with these challenging circumstances, and share thoughts and feelings with caring mentors.
Challenges Facing E-Mentoring Programs
These programs give interested volunteers an easy avenue to lend a hand, since those in need are often just click away. But e-mentoring programs do face their share of challenges, and often a lack of funds cripples those on the receiving end, who lack necessary equipment and technical infrastructure.
In addition to economic issues, another problem facing e-mentoring deals with security concerns, especially since children are involved. The I Could Be program provides no real-time communication opportunities for mentors and mentees. Rather, it employs proprietary software that monitors for any potentially inappropriate exchanges and does not allow users to pinpoint each other’s location.
As social networks, Skype and other means of communication become commonplace, remedies to obstacles of security and privacy are expected to ramp up.
The Effectiveness of Mentoring
Mentoring programs appear to be most effective for youths with difficulties or who are exposed to heightened levels of environmental risk, according to David DuBois, a professor of Community Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. But existing face-to-face programs often fail to handle logistical demands such scheduling, securing locations, and transportation.
According to DuBois, volunteer-based projects may have an edge because they use a virtually free resource, people volunteering their time.
“Because of this potential,” says DuBois, “mentoring programs represent a particularly exciting direction for maintaining strong investments in the future of our nation’s youth despite the economic challenges that are currently facing the country.”
The Future of E-Mentoring
E-mentoring programs may also have an edge, eliminating expenses and adding value to young people, and programs will likely grow to better complement, not necessarily replace, traditional programs.
“We’re not trying to replace a face-to-face methodology,” said I Could Be’s Schrauth. “That is a beautiful relationship, and it’s very important. But there are capacity issues. Only so many kids get to participate. Technology allows everybody to participate, on both the mentee side and the mentor side.”
