The Importance of a Mentor

Amanda Martinez has been a very supportive mentor throughout my time with UnidosUS. Getting to work with someone who is doing amazing work for Latinos in Higher Education is encouraging. Her work in educational policy, including issues related to student debt by examining barriers to postsecondary success and advancing key legislative efforts with coalition partners is important work impacting my community. As a current student myself a lot of these things directly affect me so knowing that she is advocating for policies to improve my educational experience really resonates with me. Her knowledge and expertise in higher education research has helped me grow a lot of interest in educational policy, a perspective I never really considered until we met. I only knew about the role a teacher had at the local level and didn’t imagine how impactful educational policy could also play in serving the Latino community in Educational. Her kindness and positive attitude are what I really appreciate. I can tell she really wants to help me get the best out of this experience and help me grow as a professional because she is very listening and responsive to all my questions. Since the beginning, she has shared a lot of resources with me to help me with the projects I’m working on and has connected me to the other amazing staff in UnidosUS.

I am very thankful to have such a powerful mentor like Amanda!