Top (from left to right): MBA President Robert L. Holloway Jr., Norfolk Probate and Family Court First Justice Angela M. Ordoñez, Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety Andrea Cabral and MBA Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Counsel Martin W. Healy.
Second from top: MBA Tiered Community Mentoring Program participants attend the April 25 wrap-up event.
Third from top: Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety Andrea Cabral was the keynote speaker at the 2013 Tiered Community Mentoring Program wrap-up event.
Bottom: Norfolk Probate and Family Court First Justice Angela M. Ordoñez speaks to Tiered Community Mentoring Program attendees.
Photos by Jennifer Rosinski.
Look for people who are in the career you aspire to and approach
anyone you admire, in either their personal or professional lives.
That was the message Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety
Andrea Cabral had for participants in the Massachusetts Bar
Association Tiered Community Mentoring Program.
"Nobody makes it on their own. Everybody needs a mentor," said
Cabral, a keynote speaker at the program's wrap-up event on April
25. "Look for people who seem to have the qualities you
admire."
In its fourth year, the program matches 10 practicing lawyers with
more than two dozen students from high school, college and law
school. The goal of the program is to provide information, guidance
and real life experiences to participants so they can make informed
decisions regarding their future and career.
Cabral called the MBA's Tiered Community Mentoring Program amazing
and urged participants to continue adding mentors throughout their
lives. She suggested that mentorship is a unique form of
learning.
"People can mentor you in the moment," said Cabral, who learned
she had the capacity to become a lawyer after taking an aptitude
test in the fifth grade. "Take away something from every
interaction."
MBA President Robert L. Holloway Jr. said mentoring can lead you
to open doors that might otherwise have remained closed. "It's not
that what you know is not important . . . but whom you know is also
important," he said.
The MBA's Tiered Community Mentoring Program was the idea of
Norfolk Probate and Family Court First Justice Angela M. Ordoñez.
The program was honored with the 2011 ABA Partnership Award from
the American Bar Association because of its commitment to
diversity.