International students frequently face challenges in building connections with local communities, which can hinder their sense of belonging and intercultural growth. Meanwhile, many young people, particularly in rural areas, have limited opportunities to interact with internationals, missing out on enriching global perspectives. Bridges by Mentors aims to close these gaps by fostering meaningful connections, driving inclusion, enhancing educational outcomes, and ultimately boosting student retention. Bridges by Mentors introduces a Mentoring Outreach Program, where international students take on the role of mentors for local youth. Through tailored training, interactive activities, and sustained engagement, the program empowers both mentors and mentees, fostering meaningful and lasting connections. The project invites universities to follow our journey and implement the Mentoring Outreach Program! To support this journey, the project offers two useful tools to support its implementation: 1. A Service Delivery Manual for Universities. This manual provides clear answers to key questions, including: definitions of mentoring, approaches for implementation, recruitment, selection of local stakeholders, matching strategies, management and quality control. 2. Guideline for Mentoring Training for academies and teachers. These guidelines cover among others: theory on mentoring, structure of the training program for international students to become mentors, detailed training modules with step-by-step instructions and all necessary materials and tips for facilitating your mentoring program’s training. Bridges by Mentors is a scalable, transferable model, with a strong European dimension. Flipping the context by empowering international students as role-models for local youth creates lasting and deep impact for all in an inclusive and innovative way.
Finalist
EU Project of the Year Award
Bridges by Mentors
Finalist EU Project of the Year Award
NHL Stenden - The Netherlands
"Bridges Cultures, Building Futures"
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https://www.linkedin.com/company/104219786/admin/dashboard/(Official Bridges by Mentors LinkedIn account)
https://www.instagram.com/nhls_bridgesbymentors/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D(Instagram account of Bridges by Mentors at NHL Stenden)
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Summary
Key People
Afke Bruinsma
Project leader
NHL Stenden
Moniek Dijkema
Finances and Implementation
NHL Stenden
Justine Jones
Trainer
NHL Stenden
Alex Grünewald
Student Coordinator and Organisation
NHL Stenden
Lena Karnalova
Mentoring expert
BBBS of BG
Julia Petkova
Mentoring expert
BBBS of BG
Ioulia Papageorgi
Teacher and project coordination
UNIC
Katerina Georgaki
Teacher and project coordination
UNIC
Gwenaelle Pellerin
Project coordination
USMB
Simon Clinckemaillie
Project coordination
HOWEST
Aventia Wilona-Jülich
Quality Control
ACEEU
Jeldo Meppen
Website Development
ACEEU
Acknowledgements
Groep Intro Kortrijk - Belgium
Opvangcentrum Rode Kruis Menen – Belgium
Freinetschool ‘t Vier - Belgium
VZW Quindo – Belgium
City of Kortrijk – Belgium
Hope for Children – Cyprus
Elementary Schools in Cyprus – Cyprus
UNIC Library – Cyprus
Unics Volunteer Club - Cyprus
City of Annecy – France
AFEV – France
Place aux Possibles – France
MFR – France
A Velo – France
Association Fêtes Savoyarde - France
Christelijk Gymnasium Beyers Naudé – The Netherlands
Moody’s – The Netherlands
Roobol, Theunis de Vriesskoalle – The Netherlands
Piter Jelles Scholengemeenschap – The Netherlands
Centre for Entrepreneurship – The Netherlands
Partners of the Regional Educational Agreement (Gelukt) – The Netherlands
Municipality of Leeuwarden – The Netherlands
International Welcome Centre North – The Netherlands
Mentoring Europe – The Netherlands
Centre of Expertise Water Technology – The Netherlands
Planbureau Fryslân – The Netherlands
Frida – The Netherlands
Images
Bridges by Mentors Training Assignment
Bridges by Mentors Mentoring Activity - Cooking
Bridges by Mentors Mentoring Activity - Cultural Visit
Bridges by Mentors Mentors Training at HOWEST
Bridges by Mentors Mentoring Activity - Sporting
Bridges by Mentors Mentoring Activity - Cooking at Veenwouden
Bridges by Mentors - Mentoring Activities Sporting
Bridges by Mentors - Partners
Bridges by Mentors - Partners Group Work
IMPACT STORY
Impacting lifes
“To me, being a mentor means creating a safe space where people can grow beyond their limits, and walk away with lasting confidence in themselves.”
Exchange student Luukas from Finland made a big difference for youngsters in local community centre Moody’s in Leeuwarden (NL), by connecting with them through sports-activities as a mentor. These youngsters often have special needs and are quite a close group, some of them have been there for over 8 years already. Luukas managed to build trust and an open atmosphere, he saw that week after week the girls and guys were more active, engaged and exited in the various sporting events with the mentors and increasingly more confident in speaking English. At the final tournament, it was great to see that the youngsters let themselves loose, had fun and were talking and sporting with the internationals as friends. Luukas witnessed that they had grown as a person as a result of the joint activities with this mixed group of international students, after only 6 weeks. There was genuine contact across cultures and backgrounds.
As a Creative Business student, Luukas went out of his comfort zone and it paid off. His participation in this voluntary programme maximized Luukas his Exchange period: he got a better understanding of the cultural and historical setting in Leeuwarden and by being a role-model, he allowed others to develop their language skills and to grow their self-confidence. All of this boosted Luukas his soft skills and he had a great time connecting.
LEARNINGS
Lessons learned
Foremost we were amazed to which extend all participants embraced Bridges by Mentors. Organisations were very welcoming to the international students, in the Netherlands there is even a waiting list. Mentors show many ways of appreciation: about the training, the connections with others, the possibility to deliver a meaningful contribution, the opportunity to learn more about the local culture and history, the personal growth in the ability to Connect to others outside of their bubble and the fun they had with the mentees! The mentees and organisations behind them valued the activities so much that all of them expressed the wish to continue the cooperation. Universities saw the added value and the contribution the project has in further integration of international students, closer ties with regional stakeholders and a positive impact on student wellbeing.
Another success-factor was, in one case, involving local 3th year students in Pedagogy and Social Work as trainers, delivering the training and monitoring sessions to the international students. By involving peers as trainers, the content of the training was delivered so much more effective: peer-learning lowered the threshold and it somehow resembled the setting of a mentor-mentee-relationship.
Thirdly the mix of training, cultural visit, short contact moments and mentoring activities made the project a rich learning environment.
The programme is suitable to apply in many different settings, connecting international students and local youth through mentoring is possible anywhere. Just start, adapt it to the local context and allow connection, understanding and individual growth.
FUTURE PLANS
What's coming?
After September 2026, Bridges by Mentors will remain to connect international students to local youth in various ways. All 4 universities in the project will continue to work with the local organisations offering mentoring by international students to pupils in primary, secondary and vocational education, refugee youth, local students and participants of community centres. One of the schools for secondary education, Beyers Naudé in Leeuwarden, has implemented it in their curriculum.
Both HOWEST (BE) and NHL Stenden (NL) are part of the same European University Alliance and are exploring the options of expanding this Mentoring Outreach Programme to the other 7 universities across Europe, since regional reinforcement is one of the ambitions of this Alliance. It will most likely be part of their joint Future Skills Academy.
The tools developed by Bridges by Mentors are open to use for everyone. To hit the ground running after finalising the tools, the draft-tools and results are shared with potential users already during the development phase. For example annually at Europe’s largest higher education EAIE, biannually at the European Mentoring Summit and within the professional netwerk Mentoring Europe.
Within NHL Stenden Bridges by Mentors has already been adopted by the Academy Business and Leadership and it’s professorship to continue with this Outreach Programme on the one hand and to also to combine the findings with research on the impact of mentoring. Also, on a central level, the project will be one of the measures to increase student wellbeing with the University.
