Empowered Learners is a mentoring program designed to help high school students develop networking and relationship building skills through the use of trained school-based mentors. Empowered Learners equips students with life skills that aid in the identification and utilization of positive role models in pursuit of their academic and career goals, and to get assistance when facing a social/emotional difficulty. Skills learned in this program can be applied to experiences in high school, college, and career development.

Program Features:

• Mentees meet with individual mentors on a weekly or bi-weekly basis
• Mentoring meetings last 20-30 minutes that do not interfere with mentees class schedule
• Mentors implement a research-informed and structured curriculum
• Mentees develop additional long lasting mentorship relationships with teachers, counselors, and administrators at school

Mentoring is a non-professional relationship between a mentee and mentor whereas the mentor provides support for the mentee’s academic, social emotional, and/or career development. The mentors in the Empowered Learners program are students at William & Mary that have been trained and to implement the lessons in this program. These mentors also receive weekly supervision in regards to their work in this program.

Topics that are discussed as a part of Empowered Learners:

• Personal strengths and goal setting
• Communication strategies and networking skills
• Methods to identify supportive adults and to recruit mentors
• How to get the most from mentoring and maintain healthy relationships
• Ways in which mentors can support academic, social/emotional, and career concerns

The ultimate goal of Empowered Learners is to teach networking and communication skills to mentees to develop their social capital. Social capital represents the networks of relationships between people that allow individuals and society to be successful and overcome challenges. Mentees in the Empowered Learners program seek to develop social capital to aid in their academic and career goals.

Student Takeaways from participating in Empowered Learners:

• Increase self-awareness and identify personal strengths
• Learn ways of seeking out and development healthy mentors
• Build confidence in communicating with authority figures
• Learn about social capital and its use in pursuit of academic and career goals
• Develop support networks within school to overcome challenges

Students work with their mentor to build relationships with other positive adults in the school and local community. Mentees learn the skills necessary to cultivate and sustain new and existing mentoring relationships outside of the program to further optimize their social capital. Students will leave this with enhanced networking skills that aid in identifying personal and professional resources to enrich college and career readiness.

Students interested in participating in Empowered Learners can reach out to their school counselor to get connected with the program. Parents, teachers, and staff can also refer a student to Empowered Learners by contacting their school counselors. Staff members can also be contacted directly by email at [[w|empower]].