Introducing Princeton Arts Alumni’s Mentorship Program
/PA2 intern Aishah Balogun ’23 is organizing a pilot a mentorship program for Princeton students interested in careers in the arts. This program is being organized in response to expressed demand by current students for arts-focused career support on Princeton’s campus. Mentors will serve as an adviser to one to three mentee(s). We hope this program will create a connection between students and alumni and facilitate broader knowledge about pursuing the arts beyond a university setting.
To kick off this program, we asked PA2 staff and subscribers how mentorship has impacted their arts experience. Read the transcript below for their full answers.
Matching for the pilot program has already taken place, but if you’re interested in participating in future sessions, sign up here to express interest in being a mentor or mentee (students or alums who graduated in the last 3 years).
Donna Weng Friedman ’80
What impact has mentorship had on your arts career? Do you have (or have you had) an arts mentor who has shaped the trajectory of your arts career?
Mentorship has meant the world to me. I have been so lucky to have had the guidance, encouragement and advice of extraordinary professionals. I have had the honor of working with the great composer/educator Nadia Boulanger (teacher of Aaron Copland), Virgil Thomson, Roy Harris, Elliott Carter, David Diamond, and even Quincy Jones. I have had the privilege of coaching with the extraordinary pianist Radu Lupu and studying with the one and only Adele Marcus at the Juilliard School.
Tell us about a time when you were a mentor and what it meant to you.
I teach at the Mannes School of Music, and long after my students have graduated, I continue to offer them advice, encouragement as well as write letters of recommendation on their behalf. Whenever an opportunity arises, I help them with performance and teaching opportunities. Mentoring students to me is not just part of my job, but I feel that it is my responsibility to pass on to them what my mentors gave me.
If you could go back and give guidance to your earlier self (when it comes to your arts career), what kind of advice would you give?
Follow your heart and passion, but always have an open mind. Throughout my life, I have learned how to broaden my career by learning as much as I could from people I trust and admire.
Aishah Balogun ’23, PA2 Intern
What impact has mentorship had on your arts career? Do you have (or have you had) an arts mentor who has shaped the trajectory of your arts career?
Being a PA2 student intern has been such an amazing and enlightening experience. Pilar [Castro-Kiltz ’10] and Julia [Walton ’21] are such kind leaders, and I’ve learned a great deal from them about art administration and community building. The work I do with PA2 has helped me understand just how necessary a strong and connected arts alumni base is. There is so much we can all learn from each other.
I especially love the OCAP project. It’s like a sneak peek into someone’s artistic process and it’s a very real representation, at least in my opinion, of all the different things you have to consider when making art. One thing in particular that I love about PA2 is the ease with which alumni share and exchange knowledge or resources. It is truly a community of people dedicated to supporting and uplifting each other. I think this is really the vision I had for the mentorship program. I wanted some way for students to interact with alumni and share and exchange knowledge to benefit them both in their artistic pursuits.
Jingjing Gao ’23, PA2 Intern
What impact has mentorship had on your arts career? Do you have (or have you had) an arts mentor who has shaped the trajectory of your arts career?
The experience of interning for PA2 this past semester has been truly beyond my expectations! I felt a great sense of belonging forged within the short span of five months. Pilar and Julia have been welcoming leaders and warm mentors to us. The great “demo—check-in—proceed” process implemented in our weekly meetings trained us to not only perform more efficiently but also to become more confident in ourselves. I even “shoplifted” this method into my junior paper meetings, just to testify on how much impact this internship experience had on my student life! I was able to gain knowledge on both tangible operational skills such as organizing newsletters, meeting agendas, and group emails, and critical thinking skills when it comes to managing alumni relations and improving our arts community. I was lucky to be given the opportunity to test-run my own podcast project under the guidance of Pilar and Julia, through which I interview alumni in the arts about how they made it from having an interest to becoming industry professionals in creative fields. Through the process of researching interviewees and drafting meaningful questions, I learned a lot about facilitating a professional/informational conversation and presenting the information to a group of audience. All in all, I really enjoyed this past semester with PA2 and hope to contribute more in ways I can in the future.
Julia Walton ’21, Editor, On Craft and Process
Tell us about a time when you were a mentor and what it meant to you.
Perhaps because I am an oldest child, I feel a strong impulse to share what I know. This had led me to various positions that might be described as “mentorship roles” in creative writing (my arts area of interest)—including workshop leader and volunteer editor for middle and high school students—and beyond. While involved with The Nassau Literary Review, it was an even greater pleasure to guide the new senior editors through the process of taking over the magazine than it was to serve myself as Editor-in-Chief. And at PA2, I have sincerely enjoyed working with Aishah Balogun ’23 and Jingjing Gao ’23, our interns, and watching them launch the independent projects they have been developing throughout the semester. Being an editor of writing, no matter the age or position of your interlocutor, is also a kind of mentorship. I am keenly aware of this when I read someone else’s work.
The times when I have been a mentor have been the times when I have felt the greatest impulse to improve and learn. The experience exposes the gaps in your own knowledge. I find myself thinking I wish I knew more about this or that, so that I could pass on the information to my student. I realize I tend to do this thing in writing, or prefer such-and-such kind of story, when the other thing might be just as good. Having had these mentorship opportunities, I now approach writing completely differently. There are no formulas or set answers for good writing. And as for editing, my job isn’t to tell you what to do so your story can be better, but to ask the right questions so that your story can become itself.
Matching for the pilot program has already taken place, but if you’re interested in participating in future sessions, sign up here to express interest in being a mentor or mentee (students or alums who graduated in the last 3 years).