Community Mentoring is a project available to undergraduate students across Queen Mary University of London. The project is a collaboration with an external organisation, Future Leaders, and is one of the QMLACs SKETCH activities.
The project coordinates and supports students from Queen Mary who volunteer as mentors to Future Leaders. Future Leaders are a group of excellent Year 12 and Year 13 A-Level students from East London. Over the course of the academic year, each mentor spends at least 4 sessions with their mentee and cover topics such as establishing goals and possible next steps.
The mentors themselves complete a reflection log on their experience mentoring students and work with the Queen Mary Legal Advice Centre team to develop their mentoring skills.
As well as one-to-one mentoring, students support with events throughout the year as part of the Future Leaders Programme. The QMLAC Public Legal Education team deliver an interactive Street Law session to around 200 Future Leader students as part of their Weekly Sessions series on human rights. QMLAC additionally host all of the East London Future Leaders for an annual ‘QMUL Insights Day’, where a programme of interactive sessions, panel talks and insights are given in to what it is like to be a student at Queen Mary.
I … enjoyed learning about my mentees whilst they learnt to discover new things about themselves, their career choice and their future. Accompanying young and bright individuals on their path to self discovery was an honour….
Flore Tijou, Queen Mary Mentor 2023-24
It was very interesting and interactive as it helped to develop teamwork and critical thinking and different ways to come to a conclusion.
Future Leader Student on Evening Street Law Event 2023-24
The day was very informative, especially the student panel. I also enjoyed that the "Should it be a Crime" session made you truly think about the line between morally wrong and a crime.
Future Leader Student on QMUL Insights Day 2024