Links:
Rural eMentoring BC
Our Story & FAQ
Why Mentoring?
What is mentoring? Mentoring is a supportive and caring relationship where mentees seek wisdom from someone who has walked the walk. Mentors provide advice, leadership, and share their journeys in order to support their mentee's success.
Why is mentoring important?
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Mentoring is an opportunity to ask advice from someone who was once in your shoes. Mentors are important in every stage of life, especially the transition out of high school. At this stage, a mentor can help high school students capitalize on their strengths and passions.
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Living in a rural area, it's hard to know what opportunities exist beyond your own community. Connecting with mentors throughout the whole province broadens high school students' horizons and shows them what's out there. Many of our mentors are originally from rural communities, and love passing on the wisdom and courage it took to pursue their big dreams.
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Since many of our mentors are close in age to high school students, we capitalize on their "near-peer" connections. Understandably, high school students are more comfortable connecting with someone near their own age, rather than an authority figure like a teacher, parent, or professional. Near-peer mentors understand the challenges youth face, and nobody understands post secondary like post secondary students! Just knowing what to expect can make all the difference in deciding about post secondary.
Our Story
ReMBC began in 2009 as Aboriginal eMentoring BC, an outreach project started by Dr. Sandra Jarvis-Selinger at UBC. Aboriginal eMentoring BC connected rural and urban Indigenous youth with Health Science mentors, using a curriculum rooted in Indigenous ways of relating.
Aboriginal eMentoring BC was originally funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2010-14).
When Aboriginal eMentoring BC's funding ended, a new partnership with the Rural Education Action Plan (REAP) began, and ReMBC in its present form was created. REAP is an initiative of the Rural Coordination Centre of BC, and endeavours to promote the education of rural healthcare practitioners.
ReMBC's is now funded by the Doctors of BC via the Joint Standing Committee on Rural Issues. ReMBC is coordinated from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC.
In early 2020, ReMBC's stakeholders decided that students interested in all careers, not just those in healthcare, could benefit from eMentoring, and in Fall 2020 the program expanded to include mentors in all post secondary programs.
FAQ
Who can be mentees? Mentees are rural high school students in BC. We support rural, remote and Indigenous students. Mentees are students who could use some guidance or support in thinking about life after high school.
Who can be mentors? Mentors are post secondary students in a variety of programs all throughout BC. They are volunteers who are eager to give advice about transitioning to post secondary. Mentors are trained and screened prior to joining the program (including a background check). To sign up to be a mentor, check out the Prospective Mentors section of our website.
How can schools participate? eMentoring is used in class rooms, after school programs, and by individual students all over the province. Check out the Educators section of our website for more information.
Is my community considered rural?
We define "rural" as anywhere outside of a major metropolitan area (i.e. the lower mainland, Kelowna, or Victoria metropolitan areas). If you want the specifics though, we follow the definition outlined by the Rural Coordination Centre of BC (RCCbc)--though we make exceptions.
Click here to find a list of RCCBC designated rural communities (scroll down and click on the "Community List" tab above the map).
Click here to for information about how the Rural Coordination Centre of BC defines rural.
Still not sure if your community qualifies as rural? Feel free to ask us!