it’s been 15 years since its creation, but this year President Obama made a presidential proclamation officially supporting January as National Mentoring Month.

On Jan. 21, 2016, as part of the month’s celebrations, people around the country will thank a mentor for national ‘Thank Your Mentor Day.’

Indeed, mentors are equally important for growing youth and adults embarking on professional careers, so certainly every individual has at least one mentor that guided them in their lifetime.

If you’re looking to participate in ‘Thank Your Mentor Day,’ Education World has come up with some ideas for you to do so.

1. Use Social Media to say thanks

Thank Your Mentor Day has an official corresponding hashtag (#MentorIRL) that you can use to express your gratitude on your social media accounts. By using the hash tag you can quickly and easily sharing photos and accomplishments honoring your mentor, and use the hashtag to check out other individuals honoring theirs, too. Other hashtags you can use include #SomeoneWhoMatters and #MentoringWorks

2. Who Mentored You?

Join numerous celebrities in thanking and passing on your mentor via the site ‘Who Mentored You'

The site has numerous suggestions and links for how to thank your mentor, as well as ways for you to become a mentor to a child in need, as well. 

3. Print Official Mentoring Campaign Materials

NationalMentoringMonth.org has several resources including printable thank you cards that you can use both to thank your mentor and to spread the message to others who might want to thank their mentor, too. 

4. Teach the Importance of Mentorship in Your Classroom

With this lesson plan from the Alberta Mentoring Partnership, students will learn how to both be a mentor and recognize one.

Through this lesson plan, students can expect to use group activities and discussions to:

• Assess how to act as important role models for others
• Describe the impact of service contributions on self; e.g., increase in self-worth, confidence and understanding of others
• Investigate the benefits of fostering a variety of relationships throughout the life-cycle; e.g., cross-age relationships

See that resource here.

5. Educate About Historical Insight on the Importance of Mentorship

Not only can the living serve as important mentors, so can figures of the past who have a lot of say on wisdom and virtue.

"Consider that not only those you can directly meet with in person can serve as your mentors, but also historical figures from the past. Their stories and experiences often contain timeless advice and wisdom that can benefit people no matter what day and age,” said The Epoch Times.

The article references the value of insight from well-known Chinese philosophers like Confucius in shaping and molding our views. This can be applied to philosophers and historical figures from all ages and regions.