Welcome to another edition of #Snapshot, where we bring you a little slice of what’s going on at Summer Search.

It’s officially a new year, and more importantly, it’s National Mentoring Month, a time when organizations across the country shine the light on the importance of mentoring relationships in young people’s lives. #NationalMentoringMonth

This is especially meaningful for us at Summer Search, because mentoring is our lifeblood. That means that we could not do what we do without the hard work and dedication of our mentors!

A New Mentor Orientation Workshop at the Summer Search Boston office.

Unlike many other youth organizations, we partner each Summer Search student with a full-time, professionally-trained staff mentor who builds an authentic and long-lasting relationship in order to provide support for many facets of a student’s life, including preparing for their summer experiences, navigating the complex college processes, discussing their identity, and everything in between at school, at home, and in their community.

Recently, we held a few New Mentor Orientation Workshops to welcome our newest mentors and teach them Summer Search’s secret sauce of mentoring.

New Bay Area mentors at a training session in our San Francisco office.

However, the training doesn’t just stop with new mentors.

To prepare for our upcoming interview season (where we interview and enroll new students into our program), veteran mentors from Summer Search New York City and Philadelphia gathered in NYC right before the holiday break for trainings.

New and veteran mentors in New York City for student interview trainings.

Even though we can’t always get everyone looking in the same direction, our mentors are always focused on the same thing — the success of our students.

And we are forever grateful for that.

Stay tuned and follow Summer Search on Facebook and Twitter for more #NationalMentoringMonth coverage!