Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Scholarship Alumni Mentorship Program?
The Scholarship Alumni Mentorship Program aims to assist students in their transition into post-secondary life and provide them with a network to encourage academic and social exploration.

The objectives of the program are:

• to help incoming scholarship recipients make a successful transition to post-secondary life by providing them with an opportunity to gain relevant knowledge of the post-secondary education world from individuals living with diabetes
• to provide an opportunity for scholarship alumni to be in touch with other young adults living with diabetes and to remain involved with Diabetes Hope Foundation

Who can participate in the Scholarship Alumni Mentorship Program?
The program is currently open to anybody who has received a Diabetes Hope Foundation scholarship. New recipients will be matched with alumni mentors.

What makes a good mentor?
A good mentor is someone who is willing to share time, wisdom, and experience with his/her mentee. A good mentor is aware of the challenges that living with diabetes can add to post-secondary life and is willing to discuss both his/her own challenges and successes.

What makes a good mentee?
A good mentee is a youth who is respectful and willing to ask for guidance. While Diabetes Hope Foundation will work with both mentees and mentors to help facilitate their partnerships, most of the effort must come from the mentee and mentor.

How does the program work?
The first step to becoming a mentor or mentee is to fill out the application form (click here).

Participants will be matched based on shared interests, field of study, post-secondary institution, and other factors. The application form provides space for mentors and mentees to indicate their matching preferences. Once participants are matched, they will receive an information package via email with contact information

What are the deadlines for submitting an application form?
While applications can be submitted year-round, the primary matching period will occur in April. When incoming scholarship recipients are notified of their success, they will also receive the application form. As mentee applications are received, they will be matched with alumni mentors.

The primary matching period will be complete by the end of April. This will allow all partnerships to be notified in time to be able to attend the Evening of Hope Scholarship Ceremony in May, where they will be introduced to each other. There will also be other events where we hope that mentor/mentee partnerships will be able to attend to help facilitate their continued success.

How soon will a match be made?
If you submit your application form before the end of April, a match will be made by the beginning of May. If you miss that deadline, we will do our best to match you quickly, but we make no guarantees regarding the length of time this could take.

What are the most popular schools and programs of study?
Currently, our top three mentor schools are the University of Guelph, the University of Ottawa, and McMaster University and our top three programs of study are Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor of Science in Nursing. For full details of all of our alumni mentor schools and programs, please click here.

How will the mentor and mentee communicate?
While we strongly encourage face-to-face communication, we understand that this is not always possible. We will be providing contact information (name and email address) upon matching, but it is up to the mentor/mentee to decide if phone numbers or addresses will be exchanged.

What sort of time commitment is involved?
We ask that the mentor commit to a full academic year of mentorship. However, the way that this commitment will be fulfilled is up to the decision of the partnership. It could be anything from weekly phone calls to monthly meet-ups for coffee to sporadic email contact. We fully support any system that fits both the mentor and the mentee. While we only require one full academic year of commitment, we would love to see these partnerships develop into friendships and continue into the future.

Does the program serve as any other services?
No. The program serves as an information resource and source of connections. It is not intended as a job placement or internship service. The program is also not intended as a dating service.