Although we hope that mentors will be attending advising sessions with their mentees, we know that might not always be possible. If the mentor can’t attend in person, Program Manager’s should send a follow up to the mentor & mentee to both loop the mentor in and agree on next steps. In general, you want to cover three things in your email:

1. Summarize what PM and mentee talked about during the advising session
2. Lay out clear next steps assigned to mentee and to mentor (it’s important that the mentor has next steps!)
3. Determine how PM, mentor, and mentee will reconnect to touch base on progress (through an advising session, phone call, email, or text)

Here is an example:

Hi Yuritzi & Elena,

This is a follow up email to the conversation Yuritzi and I had this afternoon about her Post-Secondary Transition this year so that Elena is looped in and so that Elena and Yuritizi an tackle next steps together.

Just to summarize what Yuritzi and I discussed today:

• Yuritzi has decided that starting at XYZ College won’t be financially viable for her in Fall 21 because she and her family ran out of time to submit tax info to MD to qualify for Maryland grants, so financial aid wasn’t available for this coming semester
• She’s planning to get this tax document issue, as well as her DACA application sorted out during the Fall while she works so that she can be ready to start in the spring semester

Here are the next steps we identified in our talk:

• Yuritzi’s mom will continue working to find the needed tax documents for MD
• Yuritzi will go through her email to find any information she’s received outlining which docs are needed and share with Rachel
• BCPSS needs to be contacted to get hold of her attendance records for elementary, middle and high school for her DACA application (there’s a $10 fee and we’ve discussed the PSP emergency fund as a source of potential help if any fees are overwhelming this year)
• Yuritzi and Elena will call the admissions office at University of Baltimore and find out her status.  Since she didn’t formally request a deferral of her start at UB, does she need to redo the application and what is the process for starting in the spring rather than the fall?
• Yuritzi will continue following up on some job leads and I will continue looking for anything we might know about here.
• Yuritzi and Elena will contact Goodwill about their one-day food handling certification course (since Yuritzi is looking at restaurant work for the semester).  Goodwill will have more info if you contact them at [email protected] . Ask them about “food safety training”

In the next few days, can you both look for a time in the next few weeks to get together (Me, Yuritzi & Elena) to make a more concrete plan for we’ll get these tasks done and start putting together a Persistence Plan for the year (this is a plan we make in PSP to help folks keep their eye on the prize and make sure we don’t let anything fall through the cracks.)  Please book a meeting time that works for both of you on my calendar (make sure you book a PSP Advising Meeting) here: 

Again, lovely talking with you today Yuritzi. I’m sorry that you’ve faced these barriers to getting started at college, which you’re SO qualified and ready to do! We’re going to work hard together this year to overcome these obstacles so you can crush it at college ASAP.

Rachel