A Statewide Mentoring Program
Mentor Recruitment Opens for the tnAchieves Class of 2027
tnAchieves mentor registration is open for the class of 2027. Each year, thousands of Tennessee high school seniors head into their final year before college or career with a lot riding on a handful of deadlines: the FAFSA, community service hours, enrollment steps. A mentor is the person in their community who makes sure none of that falls through the cracks. It's a role tnAchieves has built into the program since 2008, when 165 volunteers in Knox County worked with fewer than 500 students. Nearly two decades and more than 100,000 mentors later, that same idea, that students do better with someone from their community standing in their corner, still drives the work.
The program has changed shape to keep up with what students actually need. Mentors used to be paired automatically with every student; now, students opt in and ask for a mentor, which means mentors spend their time with students who are ready to engage rather than chasing down contact information. The program also moved from in-person to virtual mentoring during the pandemic, a shift that turned out to open doors rather than close them: it's easier for busy professionals to volunteer, and it made room for a new Workforce Mentoring track, launched this past year, that pairs mentors with students as they move from college into their careers. Today there are two tracks: Access mentors work with three to six high school seniors on the milestones that get them to college, and Workforce mentors work with one or two students on resumes, interviews, and the first steps of a career.
Being a mentor still asks for about one hour a month, mostly texts, calls, and emails, with in-person check-ins as an option, not a requirement. tnAchieves is recruiting 5,000 mentors by November 20 to make sure every student in the class of 2027 who wants a mentor gets one. If you've thought about volunteering, or you're not sure your hour a month would matter, listen to episode 35 of At Scale for the full story, then register to mentor at tnAchieves.org/mentors.