BE A MENTOR
Mentoring with Mentor Illinois is not just about helping high school students apply to college—it’s about empowering, challenging, and walking alongside someone who’ll carry forward your influence long after the mentorship ends.
Who We Serve
Mentor Illinois offers one-on-one guidance about how to apply to college to every high school student in Illinois who wants to apply to college and who does not otherwise have access to such help.
As a first priority, we provide college application guidance to some of the neediest high school students in Illinois—those from non-college families and those from low-income backgrounds.
Mentor Responsibilities
The main responsibility of each mentor is to be their students’ primary source of personalized college application guidance.
Different students follow different paths through the college application process, and the mentor's job is to provide individualized guidance along each of their students' unique journeys.
Some mentors focus on helping students in their junior year of high school, while others work with students in their senior year. Yet other mentors help students with skill-specific parts of college applications, such as standardized testing and essays.
Regardless of focus area, all mentors are responsible for doing the following:
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Being available to work for at least 5 hours per week;
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Communicating digitally with 1 or more students assigned to the mentor;
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Meeting with students via Zoom, Google Meets, Teams, or similar platforms; and
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Arranging work and meetings that fit the mentor's schedule.
Training & Support
Mentors will receive training in the Mentor Illinois application support process, and Mentor Illinois will provide mentors with week-by-week guidance and resources throughout the mentorship period.
Payment
Each mentor who fulfills the requirements of their mentorship will be paid $1,250 at the end of each semester (or equivalent time period) of service. This total amount of money will be paid through the mentor's college's Federal Work-Study program and/or by Mentor Illinois directly.
Qualifications
In order to become a Mentor Illinois mentor, you must meet all of the following qualifications:
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Currently attend an Illinois college or university;
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Have an official school email address;
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Have at least a 2.5 undergraduate GPA (or a 3.0 high school GPA in the case of first-year college students);
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Be at least 18 years of age;
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Be authorized to work in the United States;
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Complete a free online background check; and
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Be available to work at least 5 hours per week on a consistent schedule.
Application Process
As soon as you are ready to apply to become a Mentor Illinois mentor, just take the following steps:
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Verify that you are qualified to be a mentor (according to the Qualifications Section above);
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Submit a Request to Apply using your official school email address; and
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Promptly respond to the application invitation which we will email to you.
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Mentor Illinois currently is seeking to obtain federal tax-exempt status through a fiscal sponsor. Our mission is to pay and empower students at great Illinois colleges to help talented Illinois high school students from non-college or low-income backgrounds apply to college. Read more about our tax-exempt status.
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