tnAchieves Searching For Volunteer Mentors

Nonprofit tnAchieves looking for volunteers to help high school students prepare for college and future careers.

Vice President of External Partnerships Tyler Ford said volunteer mentors work to provide local encouragement and guidance as students begin post-secondary education. Ford said volunteers do not need to be familiar with how colleges function to be eligible to sign up.

“tnAchieves is going to ensure that every volunteer mentor has those details,” Ford said. “We aren’t going to leave a mentor out to their own devices to figure those things out. And so the details, the processes we’re going to take care of, we just need a volunteer who’s willing to serve as that personal support system for students and to make sure that they’ve got that local champion in their corner.”

The non-profit said it is still looking for fifteen volunteers in Putnam County, four in Smith County, three in Fentress County, and two in White County. Ford said deadline to register as a mentor was extended until Friday so the nonprofit can get the volunteers it needs.

“If you’re in a community that still has a need for volunteer mentors, certainly now is a great time to get registered and to get started as a volunteer mentor,” Ford said. “But if your county has already met it’s mentor goal that doesn’t mean you can’t apply.

Ford said tnAchieves is working hard to make sure it has all the mentors it needs by the end of the week. Ford said anyone interested in becoming a mentor can fill out the registration form found on the mentors tab of tnAchieve’s website.

“We’re going to provide you with a brief orientation after that,” Ford said. “We’re going to invite you to attend an in-person meeting at the local high school of your choosing and then you’re going to be off to the races in terms of actually serving that small group of two to three students.”

Ford said these mentors play an important role because many students in the program come from low-income homes or are the first in their families to go to college. Ford said these students often do not have someone in their family who they can turn to for support while preparing for college.

Ford said the nonprofit has already met its statewide goal to recruit five thousand mentors throughout Tennessee.

“It’s not abnormal to see a few additional counties that we need to work to close out in this additional week,” Ford said. “But that’s exactly why we’ve extended the deadline.”