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, cultural competency 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!
Your Role as a Mentor
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Learn about our policies and expectations for mentors here.
Your mentee
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.
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
About the application process:
- We are now recruiting mentors for the 2023-2024 school year. To apply, please fill out our application form. This form contains a brief introduction to the program and what to expect, and then you will answer some questions, including filling out your mentoring profile. Please click on this link: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cBJrzZmpmE02Umy
- If you are accepted you must complete online training and take a quiz in 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.
- Then we will invite you to join the program on MentorCity, and you will be eligible to be matched. The eMentoring staff will match you to a mentee when someone compatible becomes available.
- Our application form has more information about the program, the mentees, and your role as a mentor. If you read through this information and decide that this opportunity is not for you, no hard feelings – you are absolutely not obligated to complete the form and we will not have access to any of the contact information that you may have provided.
*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.