Reverse Mentorship Program

With the month of January being National Mentorship Month, we want to shine a spotlight on our Reverse Mentorship Program. Unlike a traditional mentorship program, Reverse Mentorship pairs junior employees who take on the “mentor” role and senior leaders who take on the “mentee” role. This program provides junior employees with the opportunity to share their ideas and engage in valuable conversation with senior leaders.

Hear from some of the co-ops who participated in the Reverse Mentorship Program and their key takeaways!

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My experience with the reverse mentorship program has been extremely rewarding. As a Total Rewards Co-op, the majority of my work deals with the inner works of Liberty, dealing with employees benefits and compensation from the corporate head office in Oakville. Through the reverse mentorship program I was paired up with the Director of Government Affairs, Faviola Ochoa, located in California, and was able to learn more about the great work happening at an entirely different area of Liberty. From the very beginning, Faviola and I discussed all kinds of barriers to success in our professional lives, and I was able to provide my advice and opinions from an outside perspective. These conversations allowed me to develop my own skills, as well as showcase my knowledge thus far, and I can’t wait to take everything I’ve learned from this program into my future. Thanks so much to those at Liberty who took the time to organize this program and to Faviola for such a life-changing semester!

- Rowan Brown, Total Rewards Co-op 

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I absolutely loved the Reverse Mentorship Program, and I am glad I was a part of this. I feel programs like this enable you to work upon your leadership and communication skills. This program helped me a lot in gaining the necessary confidence to talk to people higher up. One of the benefits of the program is that the generation gap gets reduced by sharing ideas and knowledge. I learned a lot from my mentee and at the same time I was able to provide my opinions and reviews about stuff as well. It helped us both get better insights and POV’s that we might not have thought of. Theresa is a warm, passionate and super-friendly personality. She made me feel super comfortable and I felt free to put my thoughts out without being nervous. The conversations flowed smoothly, and we never felt any awkwardness or tension, another reason why Theresa is such a great leader. Getting to know about Theresa a bit more, I was truly inspired and motivated by her journey, and I will always look up to that. I would take this program up every single time if I am back here since it’s a great nurturing and growth opportunity.

- Shivang Shingala, Service Desk Analyst Co-op 

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The Reverse Mentorship Program was one of the main reasons I applied for this role at Liberty! Where do you get the opportunity to mentor a Senior Leader? I got the opportunity to be paired with Dale Harrington, Director of Human Resources, he is highly knowledgeable and shared many things with me about the company that I was not aware of. We talked about employee retention, the mindset of the current generation, and their expectations from organizations, including "How do we earn money?" and some information about facilities. We usually have a half-hour meeting that lasts 45 minutes because we both have so much to discuss. This was one of the best parts of my Co-op term, and I am looking forward to participating in this program for my Winter 2023 term as well.

- Farhinbibi Sindha, Talent Acquisition Co-op