b'FNEEATWUSR: EEDD UARCTAITCEL EPLUS MENTORING PROGRAMNICOLE STEYN - MENTEEDevelopment Officeri Haileybury FoundationNicole is a creative marketing, brand and communications professional with a track record of delivering successful strategies that drives sales through improved customer engagement.Why did you seek out a mentor? When I heard that Educate Plus was offering a mentoringThere are always new ways of doing things and therefore program, being new to this industry I felt this would beourdiscussionshaveprovidedmanyopportunitiesfor agreatopportunitytotapintoresourcesfromoutsideus both to discuss, discover and maybe apply a different my organisation and learn from other leaders within theviewpoint to various initiatives.Fundraising and education sector. Nicoles key take-aways WhenJudyandIhadourintroductorymeeting,weAs the mentee, sharing a wish list or framework of key immediately hit it off - for me this was very important thatlearningprioritiesatthebeginningofourmentoring we both felt comfortable and compatible. Since then werelationship has helped to guide the topics for discussion have been meeting via Zoom every few weeks to talk aboutat each meeting. This also ensures that the meetings are our experiences and ideas, using my mentee frameworkproductive and timely as I am mindful of my mentors time.and agenda for guidance - though our discussions, moreThe mentoring relationship commenced as we went into our often than not, evolve organically at each session which hasfirst lockdown. It was wonderful to have Judy to reach out to. been fun! We were able to connect and share on both a personal level and professional level - a great source of support during these uncertain times. I am sure our friendship will continue WhenEducatePluspairedmewithJudy,Iusedtheon and I look forward to meeting Judy in person when the MentorCloud profile function to find out a little more aboutopportunity permits.my new mentor, and to reach out via Messages so we could arrange our first meeting. The platform made it very easy to connect in the first instance and we found we both shared similar values and matched mentoring needs / skills.What are the benefits to having a mentoring relationship?I have thoroughly enjoyed the mentoring experience, and making a new friend in Judy. We have both found it rewarding and enjoyed learning from each other. I love the fact that everyone from within the educational sector is more than happy to share experiences and learnings as we all have ourTina Flemingunique target audiences and constituencies. Operations Manager, Educate Plus52 FACE 2 FACE MAGAZINE'