The Value In Mentoring Our Youth by Arly Nguyen

We often hear the saying that children are our future. But what happens when children take the troubled path, succumbing to crime, drug addiction or self-destruction? If children are our future, isn’t it our responsibility to shape our future by shaping our youth? We can do that through mentorship.

​Benefits of Mentorship
Mentors are nothing new or unheard of in my career in academia. Mentors are advisers, teachers, sources of funding and guides about classes, careers, jobs, graduate schools and life choices. Above all, mentors are motivators and role models, who believe in their mentees, see their potential and help them get to where they want to go. During my career path, I would not have known what schools to attend, what career to pursue, what classes to take or what steps to take without my mentors.

Fortunately, I and other mentees in academia are usually adults. Children and adolescents, in contrast, have more limited worldviews and experiences, are individuating themselves, and are beginning to rely less on parents and more on peers. If you think back to when you were a teenager, you may remember trying to figure out who you were and how to navigate through social norms.

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