Becoming a volunteer mentor in the diaspora: why, how much time, how

Information checked on 2 November 2026.

Becoming a volunteer mentor in the diaspora means giving a young person what you may have lacked: someone who has been there. You passed your bac back home, put together a study application, looked for a scholarship, waited for a visa, found housing, landed a first job. That knowledge is written in no official guide. On Compatri, the Mentors page lets you offer it, free of charge, to secondary school and university students. This guide answers the questions you ask yourself before committing: why, how much time, how to do it well, where to stop, and how to create your profile.

Why become a volunteer mentor in the diaspora

A Terminale student in Parakou, Bafoussam or Kayes rarely has an adult around them who studied abroad. They learn through social media, through rumours, sometimes through paid intermediaries who promise what they cannot deliver. Your experience is valuable for three reasons:

What you gain from it is real too: the pleasure of passing things on, a living bond with your country, and a fresh look at your own path. For other ways to get involved, our article on volunteering in diaspora associations offers further ideas.

How much time to plan

Mentoring does not require much availability, but it does require consistency. A frequently cited study by Grossman and Rhodes (2002), among 1,138 adolescents enrolled in a mentoring programme in the United States, observed that relationships lasting a year or more were associated with the greatest number of improvements for the young people, and that relationships ending very early were associated with declines in several indicators. The context differs from yours, but the lesson applies: better a modest commitment you keep than a generous one you abandon.

These durations are practical benchmarks, not platform rules. Set your own limit: two or three mentees at a time is enough for most volunteers. When you no longer have time, the "Mettre en pause" (pause) button removes your profile from the list without deleting it.

Good practice as a mentor

The American organisation MENTOR, which publishes reference standards for youth mentoring programmes (Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring, fifth edition), emphasises among other things the preparation of mentors, supporting the relationship over time and the way it ends. Applied to online mentoring for a study project, this gives:

The limits: what a mentor does not do

Voluntary means voluntary. On Compatri, mentoring involves no payment, neither from Compatri nor from young people. If you work for an institution, a private school or a coaching firm, say so clearly in your profile, and do not use mentoring to recruit clients. If a young person tells you about an intermediary asking them for money, point them to our article on scholarship scams.

With a minor, be doubly careful. The minimum age to create a Compatri account is 14: some of your mentees will be minors. Keep exchanges on the platform, stay on the subject of studies, and encourage the young person to involve their parents; our guide for parents supporting a child from the bac to departure can be passed on to them. Any worrying behaviour should be reported, and the Child safety page explains how the team handles these reports.

Creating your mentor profile on Compatri

The form is at the bottom of the Mentors page, "Devenir mentor" (become a mentor) block. It has four fields:

The seven topics are: guidance and choosing studies; scholarships; application file and Campus France; visa and settling in; housing; internship and first job; help with a subject. Only tick those where you have real experience: young people filter the list by topic.

Once saved, your profile appears in the list of mentors, with your first name, the initial of your surname, the flag of your country of origin, your city and country of residence. You can edit it at any time, or pause it. Having your identity verified from the Verification page adds the "Identity verified" badge to your member profile: for a parent checking who their child is writing to, it is a useful signal.

Receiving and handling requests

Each request arrives as a connection request with a message of 20 to 500 characters. You accept it or not: nothing obliges you, and no private message is possible before you accept. A few tips:

• reply within the week, even to decline: a polite refusal is better than silence;
• if the request is vague, accept and ask a framing question, or point them to another mentor;
• if you are full, pause your profile rather than leave requests unanswered.

Our guide to finding a mentor in the diaspora explains to young people how to write their first message: you can recommend it to them.

What you can prepare in advance

Save time with a few resources to share: the Campus France simulator (in French), free and anonymous, which places a file against admitted applicants; the scholarship directory (in French), with its verified entries and alerts; and our guides on the recommendation letter for a scholarship, if a young person asks you for one, and on the diaspora professional network. A mentor who knows where to point is more useful than a mentor who knows everything.

Sources

• Grossman and Rhodes, "The Test of Time: Predictors and Effects of Duration in Youth Mentoring Relationships", American Journal of Community Psychology, 2002 (University of Massachusetts Boston)
• MENTOR, Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring, fifth edition
• MENTOR, the elements of the fifth edition (interactive table of contents)