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Ementoring
The Future of Mentoring Programs
by Stephanie Gundry

Ementoring or telementoring is a relatively new method of fostering mentoring relationships. The concept, although abundant with potential, faces some challenges. This article will outline the potential and challenges, as well as highlight several current ementoring programs.

Ementoring programs aim to develop mentoring relationships where face-to-face interaction would be impractical or impossible. For example, pairing children with disabilities to adults with similar disabilities for face-to-face meetings may be difficult or impractical. Regional and international relationships may also be possible through such programs. Ementoring allows these difficulties to be surmounted.

One of the main concerns with these programs is providing opportunities for volunteers/mentors to learn and grow from their experiences. Another challenge facing these programs is inadequate planning. The creation of these programs is often involved and complicated, and many programs struggle because they did not anticipate the technological complexities of setting up their program.

Nonetheless, there are successful ementoring programs in existence. A few examples of these programs are listed below:

* Big Brothers Big Sisters of Berks County – http://www.bbbsbc.org/ – This chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters launched an online mentoring program pairing adults from the community with middle school students. This program combines ementoring with face-to-face meetings.

* CyberSisters – http://www.cyber-sisters.org/ – Pairs teachers and college mentors with middle school girls to increase their interest and knowledge in math, science and technology through online mentoring relationships.

* Intercultural Email Classroom Connections – http://www.iec.org/ - Links teachers with partners in other countries and cultures for email classroom pen-pal and project exchanges.

* Mentor Center – http://www.iss.ocmboces.org/ - Students can send assignments to mentors for them to review their work, while a teacher oversees the exchanges.

More information about these programs and other ementoring programs can be found at http://www.serviceleader.org/vv/orgs/mentor.html.

If done properly, ementoring holds a lot of potential for service-learning programs. Imagine a high school technology class mentoring middle school students on technology issues through ementoring, or students creating relationships with seniors or people with disabilities via email. The possibilities are immense, but good planning and sustainable practices are crucial to an ementoring program’s success.