Reverse Mentoring

Life is a beautiful experience and over the years, we’ve been learning how to share experiences with others.  A few weeks ago, we received a Facebook message from Jonathan, a student in the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business.  He said his sister, Rena Cohen-Kurzrock, was interested in shadowing Goodspero for internship week at her school, School of the Woods (Montessori Education).  

She told us that seniors at School of the Woods “have the opportunity to explore a topic of interest, research it, and write a thesis. Hoping to find a place to intern/volunteer/shadow, each senior looks for an organization that may relate to their senior thesis.”

Rena’s senior thesis is: “Do Disney animated princess/prince movies display hidden/implied stereotypes and ideas that negatively influence children?“.  Her thesis connects with child development and education, as well as the role that media plays.

Our week with Rena opened our eyes yet again to the power and influence our youth have, not only on social issues like gender stereotypes and education, both of which carry deep roots in our values, but also the power of inspiration and action.

Since we returned from our trip to El Salvador to collaborate and support youth’s education in remote areas, we’ve felt almost overwhelmed with the countless opportunities there are to continue to make an impact in our communities (locally and internationally).

In a way, it’s almost stunting to focus on the grand scheme of things for too long, but at the same time we know it’s necessary in order to plan for the future.  Having a fresh new face around re-inspired and enabled us to get a third-party perspective of Goodspero’s projects and goals. *Thanks Rena!*

“In traditional mentoring, a seasoned executive might counsel a young up-and-comer about career development or leadership. However, a growing phenomenon called reverse mentoring (or reciprocal mentoring) gives entry-level, often tech-savvy employees the chance to school senior executives about business interests, such as trends in social media, consumer culture and unconventional methods to boost office morale.“

– Susan Johnston, U.S. News

Sharespace

START: starthouston.com

By the end of our week with Rena and without giving her any prior knowledge of the people we worked with or the places we went in El Salvador, she compiled clips from some of our video footage in El Salvador and created a heartfelt 3-minute short film compilation using music from a live recording of Víctor Treminio on guitar in San Miguel. Víctor is a friar and cousin of Lily Rivera, also an alumna of the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at UH.  Lily is one of our original founding advisors and has been a supporter of Goodspero since our inception in WCE 2012-2013.

In honor of community collaboration and the 191 of you who contributed to Goodspero’s “BIGGEST Crowdfund for Education EVER” benefitting youth’s education, and all those who contributed your time, talents, and social media shares, we’d like to thank you and extend another heartfelt appreciation for your support.

*Note: We had shared Rena’s video editing compilation on YouTube but it is now set to private. Please reach out if you’d like to view it privately. 🙂