Ernesta was part of our 2021 pilot cohort. We met her through Eastside Young Leaders’ Academy, one of our brilliant partner schools. Recently we got in touch with Ernesta to hear about her experiences working with her mentor, Nikita, and how the programme has helped her over the long term.
A key foundation of a Catalyst mentoring relationship is that pairs develop SMART goals to work on throughout the year. On the programme, Ernesta was focused on improving her organisation.
“When I started mentoring I was revising for my GCSE's and struggling with organisation skills, which made revision difficult. Additionally, I was also preparing for boarding school and I knew that my lack of organisation would make this transition into boarding school difficult for me. So organisation became one of my main goals to ease the revision process and my transition into boarding school.”
In working on her SMART goals, Ernesta really appreciated having someone to keep her accountable.
“Regular check-ins helped me to keep focused on my goals. I also had mini goals that I would try to achieve between our check ins which helped me to make steady progress towards my bigger goals. If I wasn't able to meet these mini goals [Nikita] would help me to figure out where I went wrong so that when I was approaching the goal again I had a better game plan in mind.”
The mentoring pair developed a supportive and empowering mentoring relationship, with Ernesta remarking “I appreciated how invested Nikita was in my progress. It was like we were on a journey together, so whenever a goal was achieved, it felt like we achieved it together which made celebrations more meaningful!”
After completing the programme, Ernesta made a successful transition to boarding school, commenting that “it was an amazing experience.” She found that the lessons she had learnt during mentoring were invaluable to her as she continued her academic journey.
“One of the biggest lessons I learnt with my mentor was the importance of being kind to myself through taking breaks. In the past I would often ignore the importance of giving myself a chance to recharge which caused burn out. My mentor helped me to find activities that would give me a break from school work. Once I incorporated these into my schedule I noticed that I wouldn’t be burn out anymore which really helped to persevere with revision so that I could get better results.”
Ernesta is currently enjoying the last month of her gap year before she starts university in September. She’ll be studying Medicine at University of Leicester.
She would encourage others to “take full advantage” of the Catalyst programme, because it’s an “opportunity to get advice from wonderful people that have already been through a path similar to the one that you are going to take.” She also sees the value of the wider Catalyst network, explaining that, through getting to know other mentors and mentees on the programme, “you could end up benefiting from what [they] have also learnt.” Ernesta loved getting the opportunity to network at the end of year celebration, where she was also able to reflect on her growth throughout a year of mentoring.
On her overall reflections on mentoring, Ernesta shared that “Mentoring gave me a really big confidence boost. It was one of the first times I decided to think about the goals that I wanted to achieve. So when I was able to achieve these goals it really gave me confidence that if I put my goals down on paper and make a loose plan for myself then I can always work towards my goals.”
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