Meredith Godley and Dot López Present Workshop at Annual NAIS Conference and Heads’ Summit

Associate Head of School and Academic Dean Meredith Godley and Director of Diversity and Inclusion Dot López presented a workshop titled “Looking Back and Paying it Forward: Your Role as a Mentor” at the 2023 National Association of Independent Schools Annual Conference and Heads’ Summit, held February 22-24 in Las Vegas. Almost 3,000 members of the independent school community from across the country gathered to engage with the theme of Cultivating Community.

Below is the description of their session:

Looking Back and Paying it Forward: Your Role as a Mentor

This session will use reflective practice to empower all educators to consider themselves a mentor. Presenters will begin by sharing their experiences being mentored. Participants will then identify the most helpful mentors in their lives, and what made that relationship so impactful. They can also reflect on the support they wish they had had. Sharing these ideas, the group will arrive at a comprehensive list of steps, methods, and actions to support one another. The group will then use a self-reflective exercise to grow more mindful of their strengths and the ways they could be utilized to support others. We will ask each participant to leave with one person in mind and one step they will take to initiate mentoring them. The overarching goal is to inspire everyone, regardless of position or title, to feel empowered to help others set high goals and reach them. The natural result is a more connected community and more visible acknowledgement of one another’s strengths.