Mentors Need Mentoring Too
Harnessing Reflective Journey Experiences to Leverage Living Legacies Today
Featuring Highland Support Project, my May 2025 experience during a global research discovery trip captured a purposeful intention to connect generational customs. Holistic birthing centers and collegiate institutions revealed their best collaborative findings throughout our journey, demonstrating how belief, tradition, and innovative wellness systems can be anchored in everyday life. My own self-awareness and connection with every individual I encountered provided me with a rich infusion of outreach techniques for the future.
In my opinion, this memorable, transformative trip continues to amplify femme voices and foster a sense of belonging in rural mountain plains. Rooted in five historically and culturally significant women's health hubs across Guatemala's vast global influence, the trip offered many opportunities to reflect on how asset-based community networks could be translated back to the United States. Through storytelling, direct engagement, and reciprocal respect, the entire family and birthing midwives offered exceptional outreach initiatives. In return, we were able to provide Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CPAR) feedback tools to help ensure that the female train-the-trainer model remains accessible and consistently relevant.
When communities strive through leveraged member roles via Asset-Based Community Development models, they can witness stratified economic investments that loudly amplify vital female roles in the workforce, holistic health incomes, and employment co-op opportunities. The transformative leadership styles observed proved to be immeasurable. Most importantly, my research connections provided a reflective mirror or beacon of light within me. I realized that sharing space as an authentic leader also requires substantial effort to propel populations forward. Therefore, Courageous Confidence (Daniels, 2024) must also allow each of us to become more grounded in our own self-awareness.
Essentially, mentors need mentoring, too. Mentors who tirelessly advocate for others must also achieve balance on their own terms. Our mental servitude, intellectual design properties, and willingness to contribute time and effort positively reside within everyone. It is a conscious decision to protect our gifts freely, with the same tenacity we show when providing solution-driven support for others. Working in isolation rather than with others to harness or accentuate individual talent, learn, explore, and co-create has undoubtedly fueled everything I do. It informs my selective "yes" to opportunities that also provide me with lessons as a lifelong learner. Lastly, I wholeheartedly believe that equitable storytelling facilitates learning and the application of more comprehensive solutions. And I am most proud to say that it is also my self-proclaimed superpower! :)
Recognizing the social prowess of mentors beside me has helped cover, protect, and celebrate my professional ascension. As a current postdoc, my global research opportunity has helped me continuously recharge my humble ascension. I now appreciate that I am steeped in my courageous confidence as a more engaged listener and a more visionary human.
