Written by Katie Kit Threet Kroeger of Covington
January is National Mentoring Month, and as both an artist and a former classroom teacher, I’ve been thinking about how mentoring feels a lot like teaching and making art.
A mentor offers frameworks, language, and opportunities — much like an art teacher handing someone a new medium. The goal isn’t to shape a young person into something specific, but to widen what’s possible. Mentoring isn’t about dictating an outcome; it’s about creating the conditions and resources they need to fulfill their potential.
Mentoring and art aren’t that different. Both are about trying, making mistakes, and trying again—not about perfection. Both involve investigation and inquiry. Mentoring is an art, something you practice.
And this work matters now more than ever. The youth I mentor are hungry for hope. One of my teenage shop regulars recently asked me, ‘Will we even have a future?”. They need and deserve proof that good things are possible. Hope doesn’t require grand gestures or big promises. Hope shows up in someone to lean on, in meaningful encouragement, in consistent presence, in a nudge to keep going, and in reminders that they belong in the future they’re imagining.
Youth don’t need another person to tell them what they are doing wrong. They need someone in their corner who can help them imagine and then guide the way towards creating a future that feels both possible and theirs.
When we treat mentoring as an art form, we shift our priorities from job placements and test scores. We honor process and our creativity. We allow room for mistakes and growth. We start valuing success as an increased sense of belonging, community building, and recovering from setbacks.
This is likely why MENTOR National found that 74% of people with a meaningful mentor say that relationship significantly shaped their later success. And that 60% of adults under 40 still draw on advice from childhood mentors.
Though I’m no longer a teacher at Holmes Middle School, I’m grateful to mentor a Covington Independent Public Schools student through Partners for Change, an organization that has supported local youth and families for 25 years. Each week, I spend just an hour with my mentee in their mentoring space on the Holmes campus – talking, drawing, playing games, and checking in on schoolwork. It’s a small amount of time that makes a real difference in both of our lives. If you’ve ever considered mentoring, this is a powerful moment to step in and support a young person in our community. If you’re looking to get involved, check out Partners for Change at partnersforchange.org.
At Artmarkit, the creative third space I founded, I love being able to offer not only a free space for youth to hang out, sans judgement and lectures, but also a consistent adult in their lives who shows up for them. Youth are welcome in this space just as they are. Artmarkit lets me mentor in a way that feels true to me—shifting from classroom art teacher to community art teacher, someone that will be there no matter what age they are.
The Trevor Project found that “LGBTQ youth who report having at least one accepting adult were 40% less likely to report a suicide attempt in the past year.” This significant statistic is a reminder that one relationship, one adult who shows up for a young person, can change the trajectory of their lives. Mentoring doesn’t require perfection- just presence. Show up and keep showing up.
This story was written by Katie Kit Threet Kroeger of Covington, KY
Partnersforchange.org
Mentoring.org
Artmarkitcov.com
Covington.kyschools.us
Thetrevorproject.org