Whereas the goals of National Mentoring Month are to raise awareness of mentoring, recruit individuals to mentor, celebrate the powerful impact of caring adults who volunteer their time for young people, and encourage organizations to engage and integrate quality mentoring into their efforts; Whereas young people across the Nation make everyday choices that lead up to life’s big decisions without sufficient guidance and support; Whereas a mentor is a caring, consistent presence who devotes time to help a young person discover personal strength and achieve his or her potential through a structured and trusting relationship; Whereas quality mentoring encourages positive choices, promotes self-esteem, supports academic achievement, and introduces young people to new ideas; Whereas mentoring programs have been shown to be effective in helping young people make healthy choices, and youth who meet regularly with their mentors are 46 percent less likely than their peers to start using illegal drugs; Whereas research shows that young people who were at risk for not completing high school but who had mentors were 55 percent more likely to be enrolled in college, 81 percent more likely to report participating regularly in sports or extracurricular activities, more than twice as likely to say they held a leadership position in a club or sports team, and 78 percent more likely to pay it forward by volunteering regularly in their communities, and that 90 percent are now interested in becoming mentors themselves; Whereas mentoring can play a role in helping young people attend school regularly, as research shows that students who meet regularly with their mentors are 52 percent less likely than their peers to skip a day of school and 37 percent less likely to skip a class; Whereas youth development experts agree that mentoring encourages positive youth development such as finishing homework, having healthy social interactions, and has a positive impact on a young person’s growth and success