BYUH’s EIL mentorship program is designed to foster a symbiotic relationship between students and mentors, say program coordinator and staff members
For students who have traveled distances to pursue their education overseas, there will always be that huge gap between the comfort of home and the challenge of navigating a new environment, said English as an international language (EIL) mentor Lawrence Dale Ingalls, a senior in TESOL from the Philippines. Bridging this gap, he continued, is the main purpose of BYU–Hawaii’s EIL mentorship program. “As mentors, we’re responsible for various aspects of our mentees’ lives—academic, physical, mental, social and more. We help them feel at home, because we know how overwhelming the initial semesters can be,” he explained.
According to Amanda Wallace, the program’s coordinator and associate professor in the Faculty of Education & Social Work, the initiative is specifically designed as a support system for students during their first semester in the university. “They can benefit from having a friendly person to guide them through these adjustments. Mentors are not counselors, but they serve as resource people and friends,” she said.
Ingalls echoed Wallace’s sentiment, but he added that the meaningful relationship woven between mentors and students does not only influence the latter—it impacts the mentors’ lives just as much. “It’s like what teachers always say: It’s not just students learning from teachers; teachers also learn from students. Students share different stories about where they come from, and we gain this diverse perspective about other cultures and languages, which fascinates me,” he expressed.
Support beyond the classroom
The work of EIL mentors revolves around helping students adjust to campus life, said Wallace. She said EIL courses, from intermediate to advanced levels, are offered to make sure every non-native speaker of English on campus is reached. Most importantly, mentors are often international students who have been through similar struggles as their mentees, she said. “It makes this peer-to-peer model especially powerful because mentors truly understand what new students are experiencing,” she explained.
The mentor-mentee relationship encouraged by the EIL program is deeply rooted in care and connection, said EIL peer mentor manager Charlene Ram, a senior in TESOL and hospitality and tourism management. “It’s more than just academic support; it’s about creating a safe space where students feel loved, understood and empowered to overcome challenges,” she shared. She said her team seeks to cultivate a genuine sense of belonging among students by reminding them of their worth and capability to achieve great things.
For Ingalls, serving as a mentor is an opportunity to offer others the dedicated guidance he longed to have in his freshman year. “Many students don’t have friends when they first arrive here. That’s why I want to be the support I didn’t really have when I was in the same stage,” he expressed. He said he wants to show students how fun their campus experience could be once they strike the balance between every aspect of their university life.
According to Wallace, the challenges mentors can help with range from understanding the student onboarding process, going through the housing contract to learning how to access Health Services' available resources. On top of those, she said they also offer assistance regarding stress management, socialization, and communication both inside and outside classrooms. “Mentors model behaviors like how to ask professors questions and encourage students to succeed academically by connecting them with tutoring or other resources,” she explained.
Ram said mentors help students navigate the unfamiliar, whether it’s cultural differences, academic challenges or homesickness. “Mentors are like guiding lights in students’ lives—offering wisdom, reassurance and a listening ear. Mentors believe in these students’ potential and do everything they can to inspire confidence, resilience and hope,” she said.
Growth on both sides
According to Ingalls, the mentorship program is more than just an additional responsibility for both mentors and mentees. “The students influence my growth as much as I influence theirs—in so many ways,” he expressed. He said the cultural diversity within the program and the campus opens doors to new stories and perspectives. “I gain insight into how things are done differently across different countries and people. It helps me become more open-minded and teaches me new ways of doing things.”
Ingalls said he treasures the conversations he shares with his mentees. He is neither introverted nor extroverted, he shared, but he began interacting with more students after becoming a mentor. “It’s fun to learn about their stories and backgrounds,” he expressed. “I enjoy getting to know them—not just as their mentor but also as a friend. It helped me expand my circle of friends while still maintaining professionalism.”
Meanwhile, what Ram said she cherishes most is seeing the light in students’ eyes as they realize their potential. “Building genuine relationships and witnessing their journey from uncertainty to confidence is deeply rewarding. Knowing I can help ignite their hope and resilience makes every moment worth it,” she expressed.
However, these moments of bliss are also accompanied by challenges, said Ingalls. “The students are culturally diverse, so they have different needs, which means you need to think of different ways to help them,” he explained. That is the challenging part of his work, he said, because he has to find ways to effectively accommodate his mentees’ cultural and personal differences. “How you help one mentee might not be the same way you help another,” he stressed.
Mentors weather these challenges by going through consistent training, Wallace shared. She said they follow a structured framework developed by the College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA), which offers three levels of internationally recognized mentoring certification. “Mentors begin by learning essentials such as active listening, ethics, record-keeping, technology support and syllabus understanding. The next level is about cognitive and metacognitive strategies, constructive feedback, stress management and motivation. And at level three, they focus on leadership and administration,” Wallace explained.
In addition to the CRLA training, mentors also undergo training for suicide prevention and other workshops tailored to campus needs, said Wallace. “This ensures they are constantly learning. They are growing personally while supporting their peers,” she said.
Success stories and lasting influence
Wallace said the EIL program studies the impact of mentorship on student retention. “Research shows when students feel successful and supported, they are more likely to stay and continue their studies,” she shared. In line with this research, she said the program has already witnessed many success stories of students gaining confidence, achieving their goals and thriving in their classes.
Ram said she has seen students blossom from shy, uncertain newcomers to confident members of the campus community. “One student shared how the mentorship gave them courage to participate in activities they never thought possible,” Ram shared. She said these transformations stand as testaments to the integral role of support in helping students achieve extraordinary things.
For Ingalls, it’s important for students to be reminded of the joys they can find outside academics. “Some of my mentees think they’re just here to study or get their degree. They often forget to hang out with friends or have fun doing things that make them feel alive,” he shared. He said that’s why his mentorship style is focused on helping students find balance. “It’s not every day that they get to be in Hawaii and interact with people from different cultures. We don’t know where they’ll go after this, so I want them to make the most of this opportunity.”