Tell us a bit about yourself.

Before mentoring, I was in a very directionless place being very confused about my future goals, and career. Mentoring looks out for people such as me - from disadvantaged backgrounds. They may be the first person to go university, come from a minority or background that makes them believe they "can't do" something or be disadvantaged, or they do not have the same network others do to teach them skills or help them get into the industries they want.

Was there something you were facing that you asked your mentor to help you with?

I was deciding between many career paths within science and even tech industries and feeling confused as to what I should use my other skills - such as my creativity - for. On top of this, having anxiety since secondary school, I overthought, making thinking about the future and tackling goals harder. I was very ambitious and knew I wanted to do well; however I lacked the confidence, clarity or organisation to apply.

How did your mentor help you on your journey?

A lot of the skills we covered I am able to apply to my everyday life today. I would say they were mainly focused on my life skills, building my confidence and strategies towards the future. Ultimately, Joanna was there for me for the long and frustrating process of eliminating my career paths. She heard my concerns and encouraged me to research and envision myself in different experiences and pathways, finding what I truly enjoy and not what I think I should enjoy. This has developed to me even considering having a small business for my art which I had never even thought about before.

What do you feel is the best thing that’s changed for you because of mentoring?

Joanna's positive motivation and techniques to build my confidence have helped. We talked about impostor syndrome and reaching opportunities that I may not have considered and switching my negative mindset to a more positive one. I love a specific technique where she helped me have more of a specific, optimistic approach to the start of the day or for a set period time. I have to assign myself 3 keywords (such as confident, helpful, productive) as small goals that I must live up to and give myself "checkpoints" to understand where I am at.