Mentors are adults who play a crucial, yet delicate role in the success of the Swampscott Currents. The Swampscott Currents have out-of-school mentors who volunteer their time, as well as teacher advisors who oversee the team. Mentors make contributions to 4311 in countless different ways. Collectively, mentors are responsible for:

• Ensuring that the team guidelines are executed/upheld and that members behave in a safe, respectful manner towards one another.

• Taking care of adult tasks, like managing purchases or coordinating trips.

• Working alongside students, enriching their experiences and helping them learn new things.

• Working with the captains to organize meetings and run the team.

• Reviewing captain nominations from acting captains and appointing members to available captain roles.

Mentors are incredibly important to the functioning of 4311, and should be treated with the utmost respect.

The Swampscott Currents take great pride in being a student-run team. 4311 is able to provide a variety of in-depth learning experiences, from leadership to robot construction, because students are involved in every step of the process. This does not mean, of course, that mentors are unimportant - quite the opposite! Mentors play an integral role through the knowledge and guidance they bring. However, mentors' top priority (aside from educating members) should be to help student leaders make the team successful. In the absence of a student leader, mentors can take on leadership positions, but a more sustainable and enriching experience is created when mentors work to cultivate new student leaders. When overseeing a project, for example, mentors ought to put students in charge. This behavior helps newer members become engaged and encourages self-organization within the team.