Associate Director
Center for Excellence in Writing
odettere@buffalo.edu
I am where I am today because of the mentoring I received growing up. I stand on the shoulders of some great mentors, who helped me to navigate being a teenager and then a young adult. Therefore, I am constantly reaching to pull others up with me and helping to create space at the table. Mentoring is caring enough about someone else and sharing your experience so that you can help them avoid the pitfalls you went through. I strongly believe that my experiences in life shaped me into the person that I am today. The challenges I experienced in education and employment have taught me lessons that I can share with someone else. Hopefully, it will make their journey a little easier or less complicated. I taught for ten years, and never really had a mentor in the field to help me to navigate academia. When I became a PhD student, I had to search for a mentor and create a network of support. I became a mentor for early-stage doctoral students, and the support and knowledge we shared with each other helped us to successfully complete our PhD program. Outside of academia, I have had the rewarding experience of being a mentor to young girls in my community. The wealth of knowledge I have gathered through my lived experiences should be shared. I am a lifelong learner, so the space that mentorship provides to share and learn from each other is very important to me.