Mentoring Emboldens Confidence and Builds Resiliency
Why Youth Mentoring Programs are so Essential
At KALFI LEAD, mentoring youth is extending the human activity of care. It is a vital, nourishing, and profoundly significant learning process that opens the way for the mentee (or protege) to put down roots. In fact, this college mentoring program and mentoring high school students are what will carry the legacy of KALFI LEAD into the future.
Mentoring Young Adults: Helping someone learn how to learn
Nowadays, a growing acceptance of the importance of soft skills and emotional intelligence in leadership roles has added to the interest in coaching and mentoring as development approaches.
Mentoring young adults is the off-line help by one person to another in making significant transitions in knowledge, work or thinking.
It is oftentimes referred to as a journey, an appropriate metaphor that captures the meandering quality of the movement that follows us throughout life as we face new challenges.
And no matter how long or short the journey is, one should always learn and find meaning in it. Helping someone learn how to learn is the fundamental process and the primary purpose of mentoring.
Our distinguished mentors are committed to supporting the women admitted into the program at no cost.
Facing One’s Fears
and Building One’s Future Right Here
We realize that fitting in the university comes with its own set of fears and uncertainties for any newcomer. At KALFI LEAD, we focus on providing the LEADers with mentors that address these insecurities and put them in perspective. They give this ready consultation, both personally and professionally, at no cost to the mentee.
Young Leaders Program
KALFI LEAD’s Mentoring Program is a Two-way Street
In this positive environment, college mentoring programs on and off campus help forge lasting friendships. Young form ideals and pursue their dreams guided by a mature professional.
A mentor’s first task is to create a personal reflective space for the mentee. It consists of a questioning but non-judgmental environment in which to help the mentee reflect on and learn from key incidents and think through their own solutions.
There needs to be an openness and sense of ease in the relationship. Compatibility between a mentor and the mentee, however, is not necessarily about having similar personalities or attitudes. What should be present first and foremost is the element of trust.
The two parties enter into a mentoring partnership that resembles a learning contract and is consistent with sound principles and practices of adult learning.
Like a learning contract, a student mentoring program is an agreement between parties that articulates specific components of the learning agreement: objectives, evidence of accomplishment of objectives, learning resources and strategies, criteria, and the means for validating the learning.
There are three aspects of accountability that are critical to building and maintaining this relationship. These are setting the ground rules, confidentiality safeguards, and boundary setting and they are discussed in the early part of mentoring.
For those to whom much is given, much is expected.
Not Something Extra
At KALFI LEAD, training and coaching is a requirement, not an elective.
By seeking guidance and insight from a pool of mentors with diverse professional experiences, KALFI aims to continuously deliver excellence against our mission of cultivating a person’s character through holistic formation.
KALFI LEADers, in turn, realize the benefits of this mentoring in multiple ways. In addition to bringing a professional maturity, commitment and stability that resonates up, down and across the organization, the LEADer is able to reflect on her motivation for wanting to excel in her chosen field and contribute to society in a significant way.
