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.