The Power of Mentorship and Investing In Others

It was early in my professional career where I decided to pick up graphic design. I loved to write, draw and edit - but I didn’t know how to merge these talents and use the software that would allow me to evolve with the ever-changing digital landscape. I wasn’t enrolled in any design classes early in my college career, so I took the liberty to find these learning resources online. Although they were helpful, I wanted to seek the help of a peer or professional to help me implement these learnings in real-life projects. That’s where I met Wayne, who became one of my mentors at Syracuse University.

I met Wayne during our time in undergrad, where he served as the VP and President of a student media organization we were both a part of during my freshman and sophomore years. He was well-versed in a range of design technology and editing software within the Adobe Creative Cloud and beyond. I would see the quality of the work he’d produce for the organization, making content that almost looked very much like the types of visuals I’d see on TV or on social media. I was so intrigued by his level of professional work, so I reached out to him to let him know that I wanted to learn more about how to navigate these design software. He was very open to sharing his insight, and he even allowed me to work on some promotional videos and event graphics for the media organization so I could get more hands-on experience.

We would spend hours within the computer labs after classes, organization meetings, and even on the weekends to work on some design projects. As mentioned in Dan McCarthy’s article, "10 Ways to Develop Your Employees”, Wayne was able to provide guidance and support outside of our organizational meetings and turn the work we had to produce to promote our organization events into learning opportunities for me in helping to develop my creative eye in digital design. He would have me using Photoshop to manipulate photos, InDesign to format flyers, and use After Effects and Premiere to work on video production. With him being a senior who not only had to focus on graduating, but also ran a few organizations on-campus, I didn’t expect him to dedicate so much of his free time helping me hone my design skills.

As he saw my design skills beginning to grow, he trusted me to become the lead brand designer for future organization work after he graduated. Through his mentorship, he also encouraged me to be more well-rounded in my skill-set and leverage all of my talents as humanly possible. He told me that within the media and creative space, the more knowledge and skills you have on digital software, the more marketable a candidate I would appear to be for job recruiters. This piece of advice allowed me to grow in my craft as a designer and digital content creator. Without his mentorship, I would have never picked up graphic design as a professional skill. I went on to freelance both in undergrad and postgrad in order to make some additional income. It has also opened doors for me in an array of different areas within the media space, from brand development and partnership to video editing and production. He even reached out to me to assist him on a brand development project for a company he decided to create after he graduated.

“You win in life with people,” in the words of the great Pat Summit. She was a well-respected basketball coach at the University of Tennessee and through her leadership, she has shown that investing your time in uplifting your people will return greater results and impact. Much like Summit, Wayne was big on providing hands-on experience, motivation, and providing adequate direction to his peers when it came to coaching people on how to leverage their talents, whether it be in design or content creation in general. His mentorship had a huge impact on my professional development and helped me evolve into the versatile leader I am today.

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I am a creative multi-hyphenate with a strong passion for the arts. To check out more of my journey and the different art exhibits and events I go to in real-time, follow me on Instagram at @erparrish_

If you would like to read more of my poetry and prose, as well as see some of my visual photography all in one place follow me on Instagram at @wordsbyep_