Blackburn mentoring is available by video in Columbia, South Carolina, and the Midlands, including Lexington, Irmo, Chapin and Blythewood. Each person works with one dedicated mentor, meets on an Eastern time schedule and stays in touch by text and phone between sessions. Our team is in Los Angeles, so every Midlands session is online.
Famously hot, and more than a capital
Columbia leans into its summers with the slogan Famously Hot, and anyone who has spent an August here understands why. The city is the state capital and a college town, and Fort Jackson, where a large share of the Army’s new soldiers go through basic training, sits on its eastern edge. The Congaree, Broad and Saluda rivers meet here, Lake Murray stretches west toward Chapin, and Congaree National Park protects one of the largest old-growth bottomland forests in the Southeast just southeast of town.
Three groups who often look for a mentor
College students far from home, or close to it
Some students come to Columbia from across the Southeast and the Northeast; others grew up down the road and live at home while enrolled. Either way, the freedom of college can outrun a student’s planning skills. A mentor meets with the student weekly, helps them build a schedule and study plan and checks in between sessions. With permission, parents receive updates. See mentoring for college students.
Military-connected families
Families stationed at Fort Jackson, or at nearby installations such as Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, often move every few years. A video mentor can stay with a teenager through a move, keeping routines and goals steady while schools and friends change. Mentors work alongside base family programs and school liaisons, not in place of them.
Young adults working in government and health care
State agencies, hospitals and insurers are major employers in the Midlands, and many people in their twenties start careers in one of them. A mentor helps with the questions that follow: how to grow in a large organization, whether to pursue a certification or graduate degree, and how to build a routine and social life outside work. See how to get promoted.
Living with the heat
Long, hot summers affect energy, sleep and motivation. A mentor helps plan around the season rather than fighting it:
- Move exercise to early morning or indoors from June through September.
- Use the summer for a job, a course or a project with a clear finish line.
- Keep a consistent wake time when school is out.
- Plan the fall before August arrives, so the school year starts on purpose.
Our guide on a teen summer plan has more ideas.
Session times
Columbia is three hours ahead of Los Angeles. A 4 pm session after school is 1 pm for the mentor, and evening sessions can be arranged. Sessions are 30 or 60 minutes, weekly or several times a week, on a weekly plan billed week to week or a monthly plan.
Where a mentor helps
A mentor is a steady, practical guide for goals and follow-through, not a tutor, therapist or admissions counselor. For high school students, a parent or guardian joins the intro call, helps agree the goals and gets regular progress updates; see mentoring for high school students and mentoring for families. Our online mentoring page explains video sessions, and mentoring in South Carolina covers the state.
Daily life in the Midlands for students and young adults
The Midlands economy rests on state government, health care, insurance, a big public university presence and a steady stream of manufacturing and distribution work along I-77 and I-26 in the surrounding counties. That mix gives young people a wide range of first jobs, from agency and hospital roles downtown to technician work at plants out in the country. Housing is moderate by national standards, and many young adults rent in the Vista or Five Points area while others stay home in Irmo, Lexington or Blythewood to save.
Many students in Columbia come from small towns in the surrounding counties, and the jump to a busier city can be bigger than it looks. Traffic around the I-20 and I-26 interchange, known locally as Malfunction Junction, is a daily obstacle for commuters coming in from Lake Murray and the northwest suburbs. The legislative session from January into spring changes the pace for anyone working near the State House, and fall Saturdays revolve around football.
Situations that come up often in the Midlands
- A student from a small town in a nearby county feels lost in large lecture classes and an unfamiliar city.
- A senior in Lexington or Chapin wants to understand how to keep a state merit scholarship once in college.
- A young adult working at a plant in a neighboring county wants to move from production into a skilled maintenance role.
- A commuter from Irmo loses an hour or more each day near Malfunction Junction and has nothing left for evening plans.
- A first-year staffer near the State House is unsure how to grow after the session ends.
Columbia runs on Eastern time, and our mentors schedule sessions in that zone, by video. In-person mentoring is available only in Los Angeles. Two guides that fit common Midlands questions are state merit scholarships and how to get an apprenticeship.
Related
- Online mentoring in Charlotte
- Online mentoring in Greenville
- Online mentoring in Charleston
- Young adult mentoring
- Education guides for families
Common questions
Do you have an office in Columbia?
No. Our team is in Los Angeles, and mentoring in Columbia and the Midlands is entirely by video, with text and phone contact between sessions.
Can a mentor stay with my teen if we get new military orders?
Yes. Sessions are online and scheduled in your local time, so the same mentor can continue after a move anywhere in the United States.
Can a parent arrange mentoring for a student in Columbia?
Yes. Parents often start the process, and with the student’s permission they receive regular progress updates.
Get started
Want to talk about someone in the Midlands? Call (888) 305 5422, email contact@blackburnmentoring.com or start with a short assessment. A member of our team reviews every assessment personally and sets up a free intro call.