[GeeTwo]

Yes, we do, without delay. As our team has only competed four years, and there aren't any colleges in Slidell, we haven't had any "full time" mentors who are also alums. So far, we have considered all of our alums as "junior mentors". I do recall other threads in which teams had a specific number of years between being a "junior mentor" and a "full mentor". Four years or a bachelor's degree seems a reasonable break point here - by then, there are usually no students on the team who attended high school with the mentor. That's probably the practical break point - if any student considers a mentor to be a "near peer", the mentor should be a "junior mentor".