Mentorship Celebration

That is a wrap for Spring Mentorship 2.0! We celebrated with good food and reflected on mentorship. We started the last session by heading out to eat together, giving the mentees space to unwind and celebrate their accomplishments and completion of the Mentorship. We talked through everything this Mentorship held: what we learned, the goals we set, the challenges, and the project the mentees worked on collaboratively. After, we made our way back to The Firehouse Dream, where the conversations shifted to more about what the mentees’ journey with photography has been looking like for them recently.

We wrapped the day with group photos and video content of our celebration. Thank you to the mentees for showing up and being ready to learn during Mentorship.

Jessica Rivera | One Year Later

Video Credit: Kevyn Tapia

Meet Jessica Rivera! Jessica began her journey at TFD in Spring of 2021, the very first mentorship! She has always had an interest in photography, which is a skill she began to greatly develop during her mentorship. Jessica continues to do photography and work on her creative skill sets through her church and has some big opportunities coming up! We are so excited to see how she has grown over this past year and for the great things ahead!

Photo Credit: Jasmine Lopez

Our Last Day | Spring 2022 Mentorship

It’s here, our last day together. We are so proud of all that our mentees have accomplished throughout our 12 weeks together. It's sad to be at the end, but we are excited to see what our mentees do post-mentorship! On our last day, each mentee presented their brands to the rest of the group. Those who created websites showcased their finished sites explaining logos, color choices, photos, and when their websites will launch. Each person was then offered some advice and feedback to better their websites from our mentors and fellow mentees.

Once everyone presented their brands, we had mini graduation for our mentees. Each person was awarded a certificate of completion and the graduation song was sang via acapella from our staff and mentees. It was bitter-sweet to be here at this moment, but it was so much fun. We also recognized our staff that will be transitioning off. We want to thank Sandra, our Mentorship Coordinator, Mariah, our Mentorship Assistant, and Lu’Cretia, Our Creative Project Manager, for all that they have done for TFD.

Once everyone received their certificate, we stepped outside to hop into an Uber headed to Thai Time to celebrate an amazing cohort completion. Until next time friends!

Photo Credit: Mariah

Creating A Brand | Part 7

Well it's here, our last Wednesday of Spring 2022 Mentorship. Can you believe it?!? One more day together and we are done. To celebrate our last Wednesday we set aside time to add last-minute touches to everyone's websites. Each group got together to edit their logos and update any details on their websites. Sandra, our Mentorship Coordinator, assisted each group with turning their logos into files so they can have a copy of the digital file after the mentorship. On Saturday, we’ll have all groups present their finishing products.

After everyone finished with those updates, we transitioned into our last photo shoot of Spring 2022 Mentorship. Our mentees have grown throughout our 12 weeks together and it is amazing to show their progress through photos. Today we had many laughs, awkward moments, so much fun, and a little bit of confetti! We cannot wait to share all of the amazing photos we took from today!

Creating A Brand | Part 6

As the mentees continue to work through their businesses, it is also the last week of mentorship. Today, the mentees started off with a fun bell ringer of “Guess Who”. Each mentee wrote a person down and stuck it to their forehead for the rest of the mentees to give them hints on who they were. Some celebrity guesses were Kanye West, Beyonce, and Bill Murray.

After the game, the mentees were focused and went right into continuing to build their businesses. Jasmine and Jocelyn continued a design job TFD was hired to do. On this day, they worked on putting photos into the client’s website design. Tracy continued to work on his denim design by finding new inspiration. Jordynne, Jamia, Cameron, and Kendall all worked more on their website designs. Lastly, Julian finished his website design and plans on starting to record his podcasts! As we wrap up the last week of our spring mentorship program, everyone is starting to feel the bittersweet moments. Nonetheless, we are so proud and grateful our mentees have found a business they want to continue with.