Part II: Supporting Teens in an E-Mentoring Community

PART II of this book is organized around advice synthesized from hundreds of responses from the successful young people and adults with disabilities who contributed to the content. These chapters contain text of messages for the online community administrator to send to mentors and protégés. The administrator can choose from a collection of Mentor Tip and E-Community Activity messages. Note that some of the content is also published in Taking Charge: Stories of Success and Self-Determination (Burgstahler, 2006c) and DO-IT News.

The entire content of this book can be found at Creating an E-Mentoring Community: How DO-IT does it, and how you can do it, too. Use the electronic version of the document to cut, paste, and modify appropriate content and distribute to participants in your electronic community; please acknowledge the source.

In Chapter Five mentors help young people learn to define success for themselves.

In Chapter Six mentors help participants set personal, academic, and career goals.

Chapter Seven tells mentors how to help teens understand their abilities and disabilities and play to their strengths.

In Chapter Eight mentors guide teens in developing strategies for meeting goals.

Chapter Nine helps mentors encourage young people to use technology as an empowering tool.

Chapter Ten tells mentors to remind teens of the value of hard work, perseverance, and flexibility.

In Chapter Eleven mentors explore with teens how a support network can lead to a more successful, self-determined life.