Becoming a mentor

Nicola pictured with Zak and Amy from The Girls’ Network inside Anfield Stadium, Liverpool Football Club

I began my mentoring journey with The Girls’ Network in February 2022. Becoming a mentor was a new and important step for me. I wasn’t offered any mentoring support growing up, so was excited to share my experiences and knowledge, in the hope that I would make a positive difference to my mentee’s life, no matter how small.

The first face to face meeting I attended was the mentor matching session. I felt very nervous, and a bit apprehensive, but it was fantastic to meet all the girls who had signed up to the programme. I took part in a few ice-breaker games, and then was matched with my mentee. You could tell we were both quite nervous, but those nerves soon turned to excitement as we started to talk about our interests and hobbies. Just listening and talking to each other felt like a great start to our nine-month mentoring journey.

It felt like we made slow progress for the first few months. We were getting to know each other by building trust, and that takes time with anyone, let alone a young woman trying to make big decisions about her future. But there was an obvious turning point after the summer holidays. I couldn’t believe the incredible change in my mentee. She was showing more confidence, communicating with me much more openly and now had a plan of what she wanted to do when she finished school. My mentee had arranged to visit college open days and already had an interview lined up for the new year. She finally had a vision of what she wanted to do and why. What a feeling this was – I was bursting with joy for her! The next few months flew by, and we managed to get back on track with session topics and complete all the sessions in the programme on time.

The structure of the mentoring programme was a bit challenging at times for us both. I felt that sometimes the session topic scheduled went out the window because we weren’t quite ready for some conversations and often saw better results when we went with what felt right on a particular day. Soon I realised that the biggest benefit of working with a mentor, was simply having someone who would listen to your ideas and offer a different perspective to the school or parents.

Mentoring has had a positive impact on me, as well as my mentee. I found it interesting to hear about the challenges young women are faced with when thinking about their future, knowing my support could then empower her to make confident choices. It also gave me confidence in my own ability and encouraged me to share my experiences more openly.

I would encourage any woman to join the community of mentors at The Girls’ Network. You’ll be amazed at how your experiences can help and support a young woman to recognise their ambition and achieve their dreams!

You can learn more about becoming a mentor with The Girls’ Network here.