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                                        Mentoring can start in different ways, as is evident from my experience with Alvin and Allie.I met Alvin when he was a Sixth Former making his university choices and he wanted some advice on degree courses. We kept in touch as he left the College and we shared lunch at Gray’s Inn before he left for the rarefied atmosphere of Oxford. At this stage mentoring was very much about his future direction. He wanted to be a lawyer, but was unsure which route to take - solicitor or barrister. As a barrister myself I tried valiantly to help him choose the latter (I think he has all the skills to make an excellent advocate, and in time a Judge) but he steadfastly stuck to the solicitor route despite my best efforts and those of my former classmate Sir Peter Coulson.Mentoring during university was mainly just keeping in touch, taking him out for lunch a couple of times a year and meeting up with him when he was on his study year in Paris. In his final year he invited me as his guest to dinner in Oriel College, proving that mentoring is a two-sided relationship! I am delighted in his progress and so pleased that he was recently appointed as a trustee for The Sternians Trust Fund. As for Allie, she contacted me when in her second year at University via LWC Connect. At the time of writing, we have still not met face to face, but we have spoken on numerous occasions. Allie wanted some advice on career direction and the options available to someone who wanted to become a lawyer but was not studying law at university. I was able to put her in touch with a number of my contacts so she could listen to a range of opinions before making up her mind. Again, I failed to persuade her to take the barrister route and she is currently at the start of her conversion course and sending out applications for training contracts. In both cases I would describe the mentoring as light touch career advice mentoring. At times it has been months when we have not spoken, but hopefully knowing I am available if needed provides some reassurance. They are both outstanding examples of young Foundationer Sternians at the start of their careers. I know that some of you signed up on LWC Connect a while ago indicating your availability to help as a mentor, but nothing may have happened. Please be patient and maybe refresh your interest with Clare or Sam in the Alumni office. Hopefully a match will be made.SIMON CLEMENTS (1976, Summerfield, A983)Sternian Association ChairmanLWC CONNECT MentoringSternians Simon Clements and Allie Cooper talk to us about both sides of a mentoring relationship.The Impact of Mentoring and LWC ConnectHaving left school so abruptly, forced out on the 20th of March 2020 by the newly imposed dangers of Covid-19, I was worried that I wouldn’t get the time after A-Levels to bombard the Futures and Sternian team with questions about some of the most important stages to consider when embarking on a new life at university. Stages that often accumulate to a real-life job, in the real world, which as an 18-year-old seemed both exciting and daunting.Embarking on a journey to become a lawyer can be rather overwhelming, did I want to be a barrister or solicitor? What sector? And who could I talk to? Luckily for me, Sam Corfield introduced me to LWC Connect, a platform similar to LinkedIn but exclusively for Sternians. I was able to use this to find people in similar roles to those that I wanted to pursue. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of responses I got from strangers and mutual connections, willing to arrange a call and let me reel off an exhaustive list of questions. One in particular was the lovely Simon Clements who has been a source of inspiration, and at times reassurance, over the past 3 years or so. Much to Simon’s joy, I initially thought that the bar was my calling and that I wanted to work as a criminal barrister; Simon connected me with HH Judge Mark Dennis KC and I was fortunate enough to undertake a week of judge marshalling at The Old Bailey. Simon has been a fantastic mentor, through university especially, where I was heavily affected by the Marking and Assessment Boycott and had to wait 4 months for my final degree. We drafted emails to the Vice Chancellor and Minister of Education while also weighing up different firms for training contract applications. In all honesty, LWC Connect has been a fantastic tool that has allowed me to streamline my journey into the law, while also connecting with fascinating people in the industry. I have managed to book Simon in for a lunch in the coming weeks, remarkable considering his busy schedule, and none of this would have happened without LWC Connect.ALLIE COOPER (2020, Park)24

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