Yes, Westchester families can work with a Blackburn mentor by video. Our team is in Los Angeles, and clients in Scarsdale, Rye, Bronxville, Chappaqua, Larchmont and the towns between them meet one dedicated mentor online every week, scheduled in Eastern time. We work with high school students (always with a parent involved), college students and young adults commuting into the city.
A county that runs on the Metro-North schedule
In much of Westchester, the household clock is set by the train. One or both parents ride the Harlem, Hudson or New Haven line into Manhattan, leave before the kids are up and get home around dinner or later. Other parents work closer in, at the corporate offices and hospitals around White Plains, Purchase and Valhalla. Either way, weekday evenings are compressed, and a lot of what a teenager does between 3 pm and 7 pm happens without an adult in the room.
Students in the strong public districts and independent schools here tend to carry heavy course loads, travel sports and music, and a calendar that fills up by eighth grade. Most of them are doing fine. The ones who come to us usually fall into a few groups.
What Westchester parents usually describe
- A bright student whose effort has dropped off, and every conversation about it turns into an argument.
- A student who manages a full schedule well, until one thing slips and the whole week collapses.
- A junior who needs a weekly plan for the college search so the family is not managing deadlines over dinner.
- A college student who came home to the house in Pelham or Katonah and has not found a footing yet.
In each case the student usually knows what needs to happen. What is missing is a consistent person outside the family to plan with and report back to. Our guide does my teenager need a mentor? helps parents think through that question.
How the week is built
- A 30 or 60 minute video session, once a week or several times a week.
- Goals turned into specific steps for the next few days: assignments, practice, sleep, a conversation the student has been avoiding.
- Short text or phone check-ins between sessions, so Wednesday does not undo Monday.
- Regular progress updates to parents, who also join the intro call and help agree the goals.
Westchester is three hours ahead of Los Angeles. A 4 pm session after school is 1 pm for the mentor, and an 8 pm session for a young professional who just got off the train is 5 pm in California. We schedule in your local time.
Twenty-somethings between the suburbs and the city
Many of our older clients here grew up in Westchester and now live at home while working in Manhattan or Stamford, or are trying to decide whether to move to the city at all. Rents are high, the commute is long, and it is easy for a year at home to become three. A mentor helps set a real plan: a savings target, a job search routine, a move-out date, a career step. See moving back home after college and the first job after college for the common questions.
River towns, Sound shore, northern county
Westchester is not one place. The Sound shore towns, the river towns along the Hudson, the central county around White Plains and the more rural northern towns past Bedford all have their own rhythm. Some students have a short walk to school; others spend real time in a car between activities. Because sessions are by video, none of that matters for scheduling. Sessions also continue from a lake house in summer or a dorm in another state.
Where a mentor helps
A mentor is not a tutor, therapist or admissions counselor. The job is steady accountability and practical guidance, and it works alongside any of those professionals a family already uses. Families with teenagers usually start with mentoring for high school students; students heading to campus often fit college transition mentoring. The full picture of how online sessions work is on our online mentoring page.
Related
- Online mentoring in New York
- Online mentoring in Greenwich and Fairfield County
- Mentoring for families
- Young adult mentoring
Common questions
Do you meet clients in person in Westchester?
No. Our team is in Los Angeles, and Westchester clients work with their mentor entirely by video, with text and phone contact between sessions.
Can a parent who commutes into Manhattan stay involved?
Yes. Parents join the intro call, help set the goals and receive regular progress updates, which do not depend on being home at session time.
What session times work from Westchester?
Sessions are set in Eastern time. After-school and evening times are the most common, and weekend mornings work well for busy families.
Can sessions continue when my child leaves for college?
Yes. Because sessions are online, the same mentor can keep working with a student at a college or university anywhere in the country.
Get started
Want to talk through what your Westchester student or young adult needs? 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.