Friday, February 24, 2012

An update from mentoring pair, mentee Caitlin Lynch and mentor Kyra Lanchester

In my last email, I asked all of you to update me regarding how things are going with your mentor/mentee.  Very soon after I sent that email, I receieved some feedback from an alumna, then a student, and noticed they happened to be a pair.  Both of them had extremely nice things to say about working together and what they have accomplished thus far.  Please see below to read their updates.

Mentee Cailtin Lynch:
I'm emailing to give a little feedback on my mentor-ship with alumnae Kyra Lanchester. Kyra has been an amazing person to know this past year as I've applied to law school, and has offered critical advice with regards to picking my school, launching my career, and adapting to the realities of being a lawyer. She's also been wonderful in her networking efforts, and has put me in contact with an array of people who can offer me a variety of perspectives on corporate law. Today, for example, Kyra hosted me at her firm, Sullivan and Cromwell, for part of the day. She organized a series of half-hour meetings with women from the recruiting department, human resources, and a mid-level litigator, all of whom were very receptive to my questions and offered fantastic feedback and advice on law school, the hiring process, and work life at various firms. I also got to help Kyra and one of her colleagues as they worked on staffing requests. Overall, it was an invaluable insight to Big Law, which, without my mentor, I would not have had until after my second year of law school. I'm very grateful to have had this opportunity through Barnard's Alumnae-to-Student Mentoring program, and I'm looking forward to future meetings.

Mentor Kyra Lanchester:

I wanted to provide a bit of feedback on the mentor program overall as well as on my mentee, Caitie. When Caitie and I first met, I told her that I was willing to put in as much time and effort as she was. She has really been an active mentee in her willingness to learn, to reach out to me for discussion and advice, and more importantly, it’s been wonderful to get to know her as a person. When I mentioned that I had been involved with V-Day when I was in college, she got us tickets to see this year’s production of the show as one of our mentor/mentee get togethers.  Many thanks for organizing this program. It’s been a truly enjoyable experience for me.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

A Fun & Inexpensive Meet-up

Take some time off of your busy schedules to go see Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. This theatre production of many plays is not your average Broadway show.  It is based on the everyday life events of the actors themselves, which may often reflect one's own personal experiencesEven more exciting is the random assignment of 30 short plays chosen by the audience and performed within an hour. With new plays being added each week, the production becomes a novel experience no matter how many times you have viewed it in the past.
This intimate experience takes place at Kraine Theater, located on 85 East 4th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Avenues). It is accessible by taking the F Train to Second Avenue or the 6 Train to Bleecker Street. 
The show will play on February 24th and 25th but is performed every Friday and Saturday night at 10:30 pm. Admissions ticket (at the door) are decided through a random process which requires you to pay $11 + the roll of a 6-sided die. That said, you may also get tickets online at http://www.nyneofuturists.org/site/ for $19.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Teach and Do Networking Night Sucess!

I want to thank all of you who made it out to our third Alumnae-to-Student Mentoring program event, our Teach and Do Networking Night.

It was a great treat to include some special alumna guests in our program, members of the Professional and Leadership Development Committee, the Leadership Assembly Committee and the Alumnae Association Board of Directors.  Additionally, Kate Gaffin, entrepreneur and launcher of 'Connecting to Greatness' gave a informative and dynamic presentation about networking, and prepped the crowd to feel extremely comfortable during their open mingling.

I hope everyone got to meet someone new!  I look forward to our continued work together in this program.

Best,
Rachel Tannenbaum
 
Mary Ann Lo Frumento, President of the Alumnae Association of Barnard College
delivering opening remarks


Kate Gaffin facilitating her presentation on effective networking 

A mentor and mentee practicing what they learned

Kate Gaffin giving a student some personalized networking advice
A student and alumna making plans to keep in touch