I went to my school's Mass Communication Week last week and I can honestly say that I learned a lot listening to the guest lectures. It was so refreshing to see so many woman, many of whom were of color, presenting last week. Something many of those women discussed really resonated with me, and that was about mentorship.
Professionals in the industries I'm involved in talk a lot about networking and branding, but mentorship is the unspoken value that is wildly underrepresented. However, a lot of the lecturers discussed it only in terms of college students seeking mentors. I feel like mentorship can be extended to high school students, maybe even middle school students. Having a mentor in middle school who would have reassured me that my interests in computers and journalism were valid would have been awesome! I was always interested in journalism, but it was always presented to me as an abstract; I tried to learn as much as I could about journalism, but there's only so much you can learn until you truly become one. It did not help that I was surrounded by adults who didn't understand my interests, who tried to push me into advertising. I spent so much time trying to justify my interests that I wasn't able to truly cultivate and explore my interests.
It would also be valuable for bringing more women into the industries I am involved in. Having women in technology and mass communications is so important, since they're two industries dominated by men, so womens' voices are very much needed. We always wonder why there is a lack of women in these fields and it's because we're not reaching out to them when they're young. Trust me, I would such a radically different person if I had been a part of a coding program for girls in middle school or had even so much as an actual conversation with an actual journalist. I'm in a good place right now, but if I could be in a position to help younger aspiring journalists, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Mentorship is definitely something that needs to be focused on when we interact with one another. We need to take care of one another.
Professionals in the industries I'm involved in talk a lot about networking and branding, but mentorship is the unspoken value that is wildly underrepresented. However, a lot of the lecturers discussed it only in terms of college students seeking mentors. I feel like mentorship can be extended to high school students, maybe even middle school students. Having a mentor in middle school who would have reassured me that my interests in computers and journalism were valid would have been awesome! I was always interested in journalism, but it was always presented to me as an abstract; I tried to learn as much as I could about journalism, but there's only so much you can learn until you truly become one. It did not help that I was surrounded by adults who didn't understand my interests, who tried to push me into advertising. I spent so much time trying to justify my interests that I wasn't able to truly cultivate and explore my interests.
It would also be valuable for bringing more women into the industries I am involved in. Having women in technology and mass communications is so important, since they're two industries dominated by men, so womens' voices are very much needed. We always wonder why there is a lack of women in these fields and it's because we're not reaching out to them when they're young. Trust me, I would such a radically different person if I had been a part of a coding program for girls in middle school or had even so much as an actual conversation with an actual journalist. I'm in a good place right now, but if I could be in a position to help younger aspiring journalists, I would do it in a heartbeat.
Mentorship is definitely something that needs to be focused on when we interact with one another. We need to take care of one another.