Mentorship is different from tutoring. Not every student needs more structure or more pressure. Some need space to think, time to untangle what’s not working, and an adult who can stay with them and offer developmentally responsive support.
Rather than focusing only on short-term academic fixes, I help students make sense of their learning—how they think, how they approach challenges, and how they grow over time. For many students, especially those who feel out of sync with school as it’s typically organized, this shift matters.
Students who benefit from mentorship
I most often work with students who are bright, curious, and capable—but who may feel bored, anxious, misunderstood, or burned out by traditional academic settings. Some are thriving intellectually but struggling with confidence or motivation. Others have learned to see themselves as “unmotivated” or “behind,” despite strong ideas and insight.
Mentorship can be especially helpful for students who:
Resist or feel disconnected from school, but are passionate or creative in other areas of their lives
Benefit from developmental pacing rather than rigid curriculum pacing
Are neurodivergent or twice-exceptional, or don’t fit standard academic molds
Respond better to relationship and curiosity than to pressure or remediation
Do their best work through long-arc projects, revision, and exploration
What mentorship looks like in practice
Mentorship is not a fixed program. While the work adapts to each student, it often includes sustained projects, creative approaches to reading and writing, and intentional, ongoing reflection.
Multi-week or multi-month project arcs that evolve over time
Writing, reading, and interdisciplinary inquiry grounded in student interest
Explicit attention to organization and meaning-making
Revision treated as growth rather than failure
Attention to learning habits, confidence, and intellectual risk-taking
I work primarily in the humanities—reading, writing, analysis, and interdisciplinary projects—but the exact focus depends on the student.
Not sure yet?
Mentorship doesn’t look the same for every student. Sometimes families arrive knowing exactly what kind of support they want. Just as often, there’s a sense that something isn’t quite working, but it’s hard to name what kind of help would actually be useful.
If you’re still unsure, you might find these short reflection questions helpful. They’re entirely optional and simply a way to think through what your student might need, and whether my approach resonates.
Bounding Lines 