For High School Students who want to mentor: Video & FAQs

VOICE high-school mentors meet with students (typically at the elementary grades) who can benefit from having one-on-one mentoring support.  Mentors can become 'wise friends' with whom mentees can develop a positive and supportive relationship. By playing games, sharing life experiences, listening without judgement, laughing together or helping with school work and challenges, mentors help mentees develop and practice social and emotional skills, develop resilience and improve academically.

Students can become VOICE mentors when they are in 9th grade.

Yes! In fact, many high school mentors stay with the same student throughout their high school experience.

Mentoring occurs at the mentee's school during school hours.

High school mentors can mentor at any of the district's 16 elementary schools.  However, because of logistics, most mentors choose to be assigned to elementary schools near their high school.  Some even choose to mentor at the elementary school that they attended.

Mentors make a commitment to meet with their student once a week throughout the school year. Meetings are during the school day, on school premises and typically last 30-45 minutes.

Please note that occasional schedule conflicts with exams, field trips, etc are OK with advance notice.  We know students are busy and try to balance supporting students and their school experience with the mentee's need for consistency.

Because mentoring occurs during the elementary school day (which begins at 9:15 a.m.), most high school students mentor on late-start Wednesday mornings. Others may be able to mentor after high school ends for the day.

Running Start students have more flexibility, so they will be able to mentor on a day and time that works with their schedule.

Student mentor applicants will provide the name and contact information of two personal references on the application form, will submit an Agreement Checklist and a Hold Harmless form that is signed by a parent or guardian and attend a 2-hour pre-match training and assessment session.

The VOICE program also receives approval from the student's high school administrator to ensure they are in good standing on a yearly basis.

Mentoring provides many benefits for high school students:

• You will make a new friend and positively impact a child's life
• You will earn community service hours
• You can use your VOICE mentoring experience as a powerful subject in your college essays, scholarships and interviews
• You will learn more about yourself and grow as a person
• You will receive (optional) ongoing learning opportunities and will connect with like-minded people of all ages

Use this button to apply online. 

Once you have completed the application, we will contact you to arrange for training and walk you through the next steps.