Mentorship Program

Country to Canberra - Mentorship Program

The powerful contribution that a great mentor makes to a person’s life is hard to quantify but it’s fair to say the impact is immense.  Often mentors are mentors without realising.  They naturally fulfil that role informally because of the supportive interest they take in another person and their influence can be life changing. 

At other times mentoring takes on a more structured and formal approach with a desired or specific outcome in mind. Such is the case in point with Year 12 student, Emily Shearin who has been selected from students around rural Australia to take part on the inaugural Country to Canberra mentorship program.

The six month mentorship program is a key initiative in fulfilling Country to Canberra’s strategic priority of empowering young rural women to reach their leadership potential. The mentorship program provides an age appropriate forum for the sharing of ideas and lived experiences and the development of skills and techniques to assist each mentee in fulfilling their academic and life goals.

The program will also help mentees forge supportive and career enhancing networks with positive and ambitious young women of a similar age and established female leaders that would not otherwise be possible, due to isolation or other barriers faced by many girls in regional, rural and remote Australia. By providing a young rural woman with a mentor, the program aims empower, inspire, challenge and build a supportive network, in a bid to help mentees achieve their goals.

Emily’s mentor is Michaela, a Bachelor of Agribusiness graduate from Western Australia, who shares a passion for agriculture and encouraging more people to participate in the industry. 

Michaela is an advocate for women, youth and regional Australia, and is a Royal Agricultural Society of WA Rural Ambassador finalist. She previously created a program between a local grower group and the WA College of Agriculture in an effort to bridge the divide between city and country and to encourage more young people to take part in agriculture. 

Emily said ‘Our shared interest in rural Australia and agriculture is something I am excited about and I am keen to learn from Michaela's experiences of university and setting career goals. I feel like we are well matched and I am looking forward to the next six months’.

Deputy Principal of Wee Waa High School, Ms Jacki Neil said she was keen to encourage students to apply when she heard about the County to Canberra Mentorship Program. 

‘Finding avenues and opportunities for our students to learn and thrive in ways that are well suited to them is something we continually work to achieve at Wee Waa High School.  It is just one of the many benefits of being a smaller school.  It gives us the added opportunity to invest more individual attention to our students.’

The Mentorship Program has been designed to create a confidential and relaxed environment, in which mentees feel comfortable to discuss ideas, share fears and concerns and develop strategies to achieve their goals and fulfil their potential as future leaders in their community.