Advocate this National Mentoring Month

Blair McQueen

Here at MENTOR MD | DC we like to kick off the new year with National Mentoring Month. As a part of an ongoing initiative to advance the mentoring field and give back to the community, I’d like to share my thoughts on the mentoring practice and how advocating for strong mentor relationships can significantly impact communities. 

As a freshman in college, I joined a mentoring program that partnered first-year students of color with upperclassmen in mentoring groups. Together we worked to support each other academically and with professional endeavors. There, I found myself not only forming a bond with my group but gaining the desire to pay the support and leadership I had received forward. As a junior, I enrolled in a course focusing on the impact of literacy within the community. The course also allowed me to serve as a mentor to city elementary students and work with them on a 1:1 basis. As a mentor, I was proud to play a part in curating a space for youth to create. Many of them felt that their school systems did not listen to their wishes and that environments like the one we had helped support were liberating.

After graduating, I knew that other youth across the country deserved to have that same opportunity to express themselves. This National Mentoring Month, by advocating for youth-based programming we can help establish the importance of these spaces. The 2022 National Mentoring Summit will host its eighth Capitol Hill Day. Let’s plan to speak with lawmakers on how we can enact system-wide change that keep youth and the mentoring practice in mind.