“It’s been amazing so far,” says lawyer Lucy Mewanu-Mensah, who became a mentor last spring. A friend reached out to her about Futurpreneur’s mentorship program, after looking into it, she was sold right away. “First of all, the approach, the objectives are amazing,” she says of the mentorship initiative.
The program paired Mewanu-Mensah with two mentees working in two completely different sectors: law and construction. That disparity didn’t phase Mewanu-Mensah, who is a lawyer herself: “I don’t believe that you have to find a mentor who is specific to the industry that you are in. A mentor’s role is to guide you based on the skills that you have and you’re looking to improve because most skills are very transferable across different industries.”
A mentor’s goal is to discover a mentee’s strengths, values, and beliefs, and ultimately leading them to grow on both interpersonal and professional levels. “Your mentor understands you as a person,” she points out.
In that sense, a mentorship relationship is a two-way street: “It’s not an imposition, or from one side. Based on the two mentees that I have, and my relationship with them, so far, it’s been a learning process for both of us.”
While she is learning a lot, making an impact is what keeps her going. It ties into the idea of giving back. “The impact I have on other people, I’ve gotten them from somewhere, from experiences with clients, or interactions with colleagues. I’m passing it on to someone,” she explains. Moreover, mentoring allows more people to access resources and build something — a benefit for everybody. “Even for myself in the future, I never know what I may venture into,” Mewanuh-Mensah declares.
However, it is the pleasure of participating in the blossoming of an individual that is the real reward: “Imagine taking time to see another person grow, and knowing that you contributed to that.” More than self-fulfillment, she views mentorship as a contribution to society.
Mewanu-Mensah herself still has a mentor. “And I will say that I could not have been where I am right now. The experiences that I’ve had, the successes, it’s all because of my mentor,” she says of her coach, who has been a guidance from law school to this day. “Such guidance, you cannot buy it anywhere,” she says
An associate lawyer at Osuji & Smith, Lucy Mewanu-Mensah welcomes the shift toward entrepreneurship that she observes: “Everybody wants to have a legacy, to find themselves and put their identity in what they do. That is amazing…That’s why we need more mentors. The more people stand on their own, the more they need continuing support and guidance.”
Immigrant Muse Magazine 