MENTOR – GRANT BIRSE, HEAD OF MARKETING, KAPLAN, SYDNEY The Educate Plus Mentoring Program provides a wonderful platform for Advancement professionals to meet, share, develop professionally and be inspired. The education community is rich in talent and I encourage all of our members to share the incredible collective knowledge as a rising tide lifts all boats. I have been connecting for more than six years with Christine Pace, the Communications Officer at Our Lady of Mercy College Parramatta. During all that time, we have been building our collective skill bases in our respective roles. Throughout my career I have enjoyed the benefit of being able to connect with a wide range of mentors, peers and colleagues to share ideas, adopt best practice and discuss challenges. Education is a very collegiate and sharing community and I am delighted to be supporting Christine in her journey as she supports me in mine. The Mentor and Mentee roles are in truth interchangeable in our case as Christine has developed and executed some extremely impressive programs from which I have taken some key learnings. While transforming the marketing and brand of Our Lady of Mercy College Parramatta, Christine also founded a national women’s mentoring program to build the skills, confidence and networks of Australian Catholic women. Identifying the need for, and in turn, developing this important program for women, from concept to execution, is in itself, an extremely uplifting, inspirational and selfless undertaking. MENTEE – CHRISTINE PACE, COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, OUR LADY OF MERCY COLLEGE PARRAMATTA How it works Once the match was made, it was very much up to us on how we wanted to structure the mentoring relationship. We decided to meet every few months to discuss the projects we were working on and share ideas. We still meet every school holidays and I also contact Grant in between meetings whenever I have specific questions. Personal benefits of having a mentor I have found having a mentor completely life changing. I have received support and encouragement from someone who thoroughly understands my field and all its challenges. I would recommend everyone find a mentor. I have been able to achieve things that I would never have dreamed of prior to having a mentor, including starting my own not-for-profit program as a side project on a volunteer basis. What have been the major benefits to your organisation from your mentorship experience? I am able to grow and ‘pick the brain’ of a very senior practitioner which is vital as I have only myself and one assistant in my team. I get to see excellence in Advancement being modelled and to learn from this. Christine’s key take-aways . . Ask everything – don’t hold back even if you think something is a stupid question. . . Put aside time to reflect on and analyse your work and also to meet with your mentor – although time is precious, the benefits of these things are far-reaching. . . Keep in mind that you are capable of more than you think and it’s important not to be too hard on yourself. Be as proactive as you can as a mentee, to get the most out of your mentoring experience. Developing your career... The Value of Mentoring FACE 2 FACE MAGAZINE 3 0