MY MENTORING JOURNEY SO FAR

Joining LBS has been an interesting ride so far, even though sometimes it feels exhausting. I guess that comes with challenge and success. Like the saying goes – ‘nothing good comes easy’ “no pain no gain”. Even most of the faculty would say you signed up for this! Oh yes! I agree…

During the brush up session, one of the things we were oriented on was mentorship and thatstudents are meant to have mentors in the course of study. The supposed mentors are alumni of our great school. I was happy with this information because, I needed someone to guide me through this phase of my life, not just relying on my classmates and faculty. The feeling came from the assurance that these mentors having passed through the process of learning in the school, I will learn a handful of ways to navigate throughout my stay here and afterwards.

I understand that the goal for having a mentor is many but a few to mention and could vary from individual depending on interest. These goals could be:

• Career planning
• Problem solving skills
• Personal development
• Leadership skills
• Entrepreneurship

MEETING MY MENTOR

I and my classmates were to select our mentors ourselves! Wow quite interesting. This allowed us to do a background check on the selected list of mentors made available to us by our dearest Jacinta Anakua. A very lovely and soft-spoken lady. She has been so helpful. Okay! That’s alright for the compliments. I had made my selection and was assigned to a mentor. A lady. I was optimistic about my relationship with her. However, this optimism became a reality as she was friendly and receptive. We did a couple of emails and narrowed down to virtual meetings. Our first virtual meeting was interactive and easy going, she created a boundless atmosphere for interaction. We spoke like we had met before that day eventually, it occurred to me that there is no limit to the objective of the mentor-mentee relationship. She offered me a platter of openness and we looked forward to physical meeting come 23^rd April 2022.

THE EVENT

The long-awaited day came for me to meet my dearest Ms Kemi, but sadly and unfortunately, she had other commitments, hence was unavailable for the event. Irrespective of that, I graced the meet and greet occasion in company of my fellow mentees. It was a beautiful evening in the midst of mentees and mentors. Experiences was shared on mentor-mentee relationship, and from the various speakers there was a whole lot of beautiful experiences captured in their presentation. The facilitator also did a great deal by telling us the advantage of having a mentor, both as a student and a manager.

It wasn’t all about talks and speeches, there was a lot to eat and drink; you know how the average Nigerian love the time for item seven. Of course, we shook it off with some good hip-hop. It was a nice evening for me, but it could have been nicer if I had met with Ms Kemi.