From all of us at the Hillsborough Education Foundation, we would like to extend our gratitude and appreciation for your efforts to mentor a future college scholar. Supporting, encouraging, and caring for our students by helping them set goals, build positive values, and develop academic skills will exponentially help them realize their full potential.

Through your mentoring sessions, it is also important that you focus on the development of your student's "soft skills." These skills include invaluable attributes, such as communication, decision-making, teamwork, strong work ethic, initiative, and interpersonal skills. It is these "soft skills" which often enable a person to advance in various aspects of their lives, including their careers and relationships. 

When you meet with your student again in the next school year, encourage your student to start doing in addition to listening. Try to engage them in a variety of ways that will increase the likelihood of them not only learning, but also retaining and applying the information. Also repeat the values that you want to instill in them, as it often takes repeated exposure to something before it is retained. Get creative and offer the same concept from a different point of view. Encourage your student to express their own thoughts and values throughout your mentoring sessions as well.

The  Skills for Life   Toolkit is dedicated to the development and improvement of soft skills. The Toolkit includes information and activities on valuable soft skills, such as communication, positive attitude, adaptability, teamwork, and critical thinking.

If you have not taken advantage of the Skills for Life toolkit, we recommend contacting  William Dailey ( [email protected]) to receive a hard copy .  Otherwise, please refer to our digital download option list below. If you decide to use it or are currently doing so, please provide us your feedback so we may continue to refine and improve this resource for our mentors and mentees.