The Mentor Experience

Mentors are caring adults who serve as role models, offer guidance, and often become close friends. Mentors are vital to the success of our program. He or she may be the only adult they know, aside from their teachers, who has completed college.

Youth who meet regularly with mentors are more likely to exhibit the following characteristics than non-mentored youth:

• Fewer absences from school
• Less likely to begin and use drugs or alcohol
• Better attitudes toward learning and their futures
• More confidence about schoolwork and themselves

CPE mentors model CPE Values while playing four key roles:

• To serve as reliable and consistent role models, resources, and advisors
• To help students fulfill their academic potential
• To help students develop socially
• To help students broaden their awareness of their community and the world at large

It’s a small commitment, with a big impact. We recognize that our mentors have very demanding lives and have designed a program that is flexible to work with your schedule. There are no specific dates or times—each mentor-mentee pair determines what works best for them.

How do we match mentors and students? We match mentors and students based on gender, interests, personalities, and geographical proximity. This relationship is intended to be beneficial for both people, so we put a great deal of time and effort into the matching process.  We want to ensure that your personality, interests, skills, and talents are valued and that your mentee can truly take advantage of all the amazing things you have to offer.

CPE requires a minimum two-year commitment for mentors, and provides them with training and on-going assistance to ensure they are supporting their students to the greatest extent possible. These relationships are at the heart of the CPE model, and help our students develop not only academic abilities but social and life skills that will be critical to their success in college and beyond.