Mentoring represents a widely used outreach intervention amongst higher education institutions. It is also judged to be a "particularly effective" approach in widening access, with a significant amount of attention directed at examining its impact on those being mentored. In contrast, less consideration has been given to the benefits that outreach mentoring can bestow on the students who work as mentors. In response, this study explores an outreach mentoring scheme that deploys university students in selected secondary schools to work with targeted pupils over a series of sessions. It reveals that mentoring affords a similar range of benefits to those gained by students who support outreach and recruitment work more generally, and that have received consideration in a number of published studies. However, the findings also identify differences in the nature of the benefits outreach mentoring offers. These, it is argued, reflect the distinct character of this work. The study concludes by emphasising the need to ensure these benefits are recognised by the student mentors as well as the organising university. The call for recognition acquires added relevance when it is acknowledged that amongst the benefits identified are those associated with improved student retention and success, both areas of growing concern for practitioners.