By definition, a mentor refers to a trusted friend and guide who is wise and knowledgeable.  With mentoring programs, the premise is often that while the mentors aren’t trusted friends to begin with, they will become trusted friends, and they are also wise and experienced.  A mentor, as we use the word today, can refer to a wide array of of people.  Business leaders have mentors.  Athletes have mentors.  Actors have mentors.  Singers have mentors.  Even your mentor had a mentor.

As a kid, the word is used in a much more general context.  It refers to anyone, usually older, who is experienced not just in a particular area, but also in a wide range of life and personal issues.  The main idea of having a mentor is to help you make positive life decisions through a trusted loving friendship. A mentor is an adult who, with the help of parents and other positive adult influences, offers support, counsel, friendship and leadership to you.  The mentor listens to the issues that you are facing, plans activities according to your specific interests and encourages/praises your accomplishments academically, athletically or otherwise. The mentor is a guidance figure who advises rather than judges and cares rather than criticizes.  We’re all role models to someone, but many times role models don’t know they are helping, or don’t have direct contact with that person that looks up to them.  With mentors, it’s different. 

A mentor can come from two different main sources.  They could come from direct personal relationships with family members, or they could come from relationships with people in your everyday experiences such as school, sports, camps, jobs etc.  So the two main sources could be simplified to home/family or everyday mentors.  Finding a mentor from the home and family source is relatively simple, but you may need to look beyond that. You may not even have any possible mentors from the home/family source, so the everyday life area becomes the main source of mentors for many teenagers. 

There is an additional source of mentors that is unrelated to these two, and that is a mentoring program such as Big Brothers Big Sisters.  With these programs you will be connected to a mentor that you haven’t met before, but the results are often very beneficial.