MentorAbility Experience Story: Brent
This experience helped Brent learn how to put his degree to use and make new connections that could come in handy in the future.
Brent is pursuing a communications degree and accessed MentorAbility Canada to gain some work experience at the same time. He wanted to pursue a mentorship in the storytelling arts where he could ask questions and explore different aspects of the field.
Brent said that undertaking a mentorship with a documentary filmmaker would be a great way to explore his goals, and it would allow him to “have all the fun of learning about new people, places, and things and getting to share that knowledge with others.”
MentorAbility matched Brent with a filmmaker in Victoria, BC, named Shana Lee Gibson, so he could learn how to launch a career as an artist. Alongside his employment consultant, Mindy, Brent spent over an hour talking with Shana about various topics, such as generating ideas, networking with clients and peers, as well as working as a freelancer.
Brent grew up in a small town and he thought of work as being in a typical 9-5 office setting. This mentorship showed him that work could be organized quite differently. Shana explained that being a creative professional is more of a way of life. Creatives are always making connections with the people they meet and the places they go. Everything and everyone they interact with is a potential subject for a new project.
Brent said his mentorship experience was a huge success: “My experience with MentorAbility was a great opportunity to consult a professional about my career aspirations. It also reaffirmed my desire to write, as it gave me a new perspective on life. I now see that I am lucky to be able to experience the journey of an artist for the first time!”
This experience helped Brent learn how to put his degree to use and make new connections that could come in handy in the future. We wish Brent all the best in his schooling and his career!