Harvard Students: Learn to Teach & Mentor

Each semester, 25-35 Harvard College undergraduates serve as Mentors at the Harvard Ed Portal located at 224 Western Avenue in Allston. Mentors fulfill important community outreach roles for Harvard by working with Allston-Brighton children, teens, and adults from a variety of backgrounds.

Mentors encourage youth to explore science, writing, public speaking, math, technology, and the arts; work with high school students on college and career preparation; and support adults as they learn workplace skills. Mentors intentionally develop their own skills as educators, embodying a commitment to lifelong learning.

Under the direction of Assistant Director for Socially Engaged Learning, Leah Dodell, undergraduate Mentors create curricula, instruct, support each other, and submit reflective writing and media about their experiences. Most accepted undergraduates find the program to be personally rewarding and stay for many semesters, forming a meaningful community around teaching and learning.

The Harvard Ed Portal is an innovative collaborative partnership involving Harvard University, the City of Boston, the Harvard Allston Task Force, and the Allston-Brighton community. Located at the crossroads of the North Allston-Brighton neighborhood and Harvard’s campus, the Ed Portal serves as a physical place for members of the Allston- Brighton and Harvard communities to come together to share ideas and learn from one another. The Ed Portal fosters innovative ways of learning and provides programming in creative and performing arts; science and technology; wellness and recreation; and economic, workforce, and professional development for learners of all ages.

Visit our contact page for directions.

We welcome applications from undergraduates across all concentrations. Becoming a successful mentor is a multi-semester endeavor; we prioritize applicants who are interested in staying with the program for more than a year. Undergraduates interested in completing the Education Secondary find HEP work to be complementary to their studies.

Being an Ed Portal Mentor is a substantial time commitment. Accepted undergraduates are expected to prioritize working as a Mentor ahead of extra-curricular activities, committing fully to:

• Orientation and training that includes in-person and virtual meetings and recorded modules;
• One afternoon per week from approximately 2:45pm–6:15pm for in-person instructional delivery at the Harvard Ed Portal or on-site at partner schools or organizations;
• Weekly individual time devoted to activity research, preparation, and lesson documentation;
• Approximately 2 hours per week of online meeting time for undergraduate pedagogy cohort meetings, co-teaching meetings, or meetings with program managers;
• A Saturday retreat at the beginning of each semester;
• Writing or recording reflections about their personal teaching and learning process;
• Participation with mentees in an end-of-semester event;
• Semester-end reporting on mentees;
• Participation in undergraduate community-building and recruiting activities.

In Spring 2023, our Mentors co-led afterschool design-engineering activities at an affordable housing complex, co-taught 1st grade and 2nd grade literacy, as well as 4th grade afterschool science classes for Boston Public School’s aftercare program.

They also designed and led original clubs in graphic design for middle school students, graphic novel creation for 3rd-5th graders, science of cooking for middle school students, plus provided language translation support for English Language Learner (ELL) teens at Brighton High School, and supported college and career events for local high school students.

In addition, a number of mentors provided hands-on, creative interdisciplinary one-on-one mentoring for 1st-8th graders in the community.

Mentors receive training each semester in different aspects of pedagogy and educational delivery. Topics include but are not limited to: growth mindset, active and inclusive teaching, the learning cycle, backward design from learning objectives, group management, and content area activities. New mentors complete or attend an online Youth Protection module and several morning orientation meetings.

Every semester, all mentors participate in:

• Preparatory afternoon meetings before the 10-week mentoring program begins;
• Weekly individual preparation of learning goals, lesson plans, and sometimes independent critiques of each other's plans;
• Occasional readings or pre-work for group meetings;
• Regular meetings to share ideas, discuss issues around teaching and learning, and complete reflective writing about teaching;
• One Saturday retreat that includes workshops by guest educators, educational resources, and strategies in the arts, science, writing, math, and more.

Two weeks after semester classes begin, Mentors are asked to commit to the equivalent of one afternoon each week.  Specific times may vary depending upon the teaching/mentoring assignment. 

Typically, Mentors arrive at the Harvard Ed Portal by 3:00pm and remain to clean up and eat dinner together after instructional time ends at 6:00pm EST.  From 3:00pm–4:00pm, Mentors might go over lesson plans with staff, help each other prepare, and/or travel to off-site venues.  One-on-one mentoring sessions for 3rd–8th graders take place at the HEP at 4:00pm and 5:00pm, while off-site instruction at partner schools or organizations have somewhat different schedules. Some programs for adults or youth may be scheduled during the  school day or in the evenings on weekdays.

All Mentors attend weekly online or in-person pedagogy and planning meetings where they compare notes and support each other's teaching, and additional meetings with co-instructors or program managers as appropriate.

Each semester, a mandatory Saturday retreat offers HEP Harvard students and staff to connect and take a deep dive into selected topics. All Mentors also participate in an end-of-term showcase where undergraduates and their students share their work with the community.

Undergraduate mentors are paid with a starting rate of $17.50/hour for time that includes training, meetings, lesson preparation and delivery, and reflection. On average, undergraduates devote between 5–8 hours per week to the program for a period of 9-10 weeks per semester. Mentors who return are given a pay raise each year. Travel off-site is compensated as appropriate.

All interested applicants must be legal to work in the United States. Both work-study and non work-study students are eligible.

Interviews take place within the first 10 days of class each semester. We encourage interested students to apply as early as possible and we accept applicants from all concentrations. Exactly 2 weeks after classes begin, we ask for a firm schedule commitment with program onboarding taking place the following week. Final placement on the mentoring program schedule requires a match between an accepted candidate's availability and program need.

We look for demonstrated creativity, an ability to connect with and communicate to students of all ages, an eagerness to break down barriers between academic subjects, art, and technology, an understanding of how to represent the University in the community, and the desire to be an active member of our undergraduate group. Please direct questions about the program to Leah Dodell, of Socially Engaged Learning (leah_dodell@harvard.edu) or Mariah Smith-Sharpe, Mentoring Coordinator (mariah_smith-sharpe@harvard.edu).