When mentees become mentors.

What is a Junior Mentor?

Junior Mentors are past and current mentees who have demonstrated leadership potential and are invited to join our Junior Mentor Program. Junior Mentors are trained to become peer mentors and learn applicable job skills to support their future goals. Junior Mentor responsibilities include:

Core Program: Play a crucial role in guiding peers, supporting mentor-mentee relationships, leading portions of program activities, and assisting staff with set up and break down. Surfari & Surf Ohana Events: Led by our Junior Mentor Manager, our Junior Mentors develop and plan our Surfari events. Volunteering & Outreach: Serve as spokespersons and staff at in-person and online outreach events. According to our youth, the title itself represents highly desirable status among our students, and the pay is a secondary bonus.

Fueled by their successes in the water and their new identities as environmentally conscious surfers, our students get stoked on life. They begin to see brighter possible futures and set higher goals for themselves. They aspire to become good citizens, role models, and potential community leaders. Becoming a Junior Mentor is one of the first goals many of them set.

Becoming a junior mentor

To become a Junior Mentor, students are usually nominated by current Junior Mentors or mentors and approved by staff, and must participate in Surfari Crew to be eligible. Candidates are invited to return to Spirit Sessions as unpaid Junior Mentor Interns to complete a 40-hour internship where Junior Mentors train them. Junior Mentor Interns must learn the job and be consistently responsible and prove they can be depended on before they are promoted to Junior Mentor.

Junior Mentors and Interns also participate in program development, fundraising activities, and community outreach and speaking opportunities. Junior Mentors and Interns are first-tier candidates for job referrals to other employers.

Junior Mentors: “Champions in Training” speakers

Our youth are rich in experience in overcoming challenges. Many have survived homelessness and poverty, have battled and overcome addictions, and are in the throes of substantial changes. They learn that their experiences make them strong and that they can teach and inspire others.

Spirit Sessions youth are sometimes invited to share their personal stories about learning to redirect their lives despite extreme challenges and tragic obstacles that average people rarely face, and many youth are sheltered from. Audiences gain a greater appreciation for their blessings and begin to reconsider how they view others.

Junior Mentors speak to potential participants and parents about their experiences in the program as role models and leaders. They also attend community outreach events, representing Surfrider Spirit Sessions as champions of positive change. Most importantly, they tell their story at fundraisers, speaking engagements with donors or potential supporters, and represent our youth at special events.

Job experience and employment skills

The Junior Mentor program builds youth confidence and provides them with essential employment skills and experience they can use in finding employment resources and opportunities. Spirit Sessions provide a practice ground for learning how to communicate effectively and appropriately, ask for help and accept guidance, follow rules, behave responsibly, and follow schedules. More importantly, youth are exposed to a larger world of job possibilities and a new network of contacts. Mentors often refer youth to potential job opportunities and guide them through job hunting.