Insights, News/16 Jan 2023

A Rewarding Experience – Our Partnership with Oikismentorointiohjelma Ry Continues

We are excited to announce that our partnership with Oikismentorointiohjelma Ry will continue after a successful and rewarding first year. Oikismentorointiohjelma Ry offers a mentoring programme to secondary school students who intend to study law, and six of our lawyers participated in the mentoring programme as mentors in 2022.

Participating in the programme offered our lawyers a great chance to share their expertise and introduce the legal business world to their mentees while doing their best to encourage their mentees to continue working towards the goal of attending law school. We asked two of our participating lawyers to look back and reflect on their year as mentors.

A rewarding experience for both mentors and mentees

According to Nelli Nurminen and Hertta Puro, participating in the programme as a mentor was eye-opening and inspiring. Our lawyers found working closely together with a younger mentee to be both invigorating and meaningful, offering both mentors the opportunity to tap into their experiences to help their mentees with all aspects of the application process.

“Meeting and getting to know my truly motivated mentee was a great experience. Our backgrounds were similar, and I found it rewarding to be able to give my mentee tips and guidance on matters I was also struggling with when applying to law school. It truly was an honour to get to help her with her goal to become a lawyer, and I believe that the programme was equally rewarding for both of us,” says Associate Hertta Puro.

In addition to the more practical aspects of the mentorship programme, our lawyers found the programme a great opportunity to broaden their horizons. According to both Nelli and Hertta, the programme functioned as a mutually beneficial learning opportunity where both mentors and mentees had something to offer to one another.

“My mentee and I had some great thought-provoking discussions where I learned a lot myself as well. I hope – and believe – that I was able to give my mentee courage and confidence in their career choice. To me, the most important thing was to help our mentees realise that a law school education will open a variety of doors and that you can become a lawyer regardless of what your background is,” comments Associate Nelli Nurminen.

A promising start to a long-term partnership

Looking back on their year of mentoring, Nelli and Hertta found that they could provide their mentees with important insights and the kind of support their mentees might not be able to find on the internet. On the other hand, by reflecting on their past, Nelli and Hertta were able to learn new things about themselves while simultaneously gaining experience in coaching a younger community member.

Thanks to its popularity, Oikismentorointiohjelma Ry has expanded its programme to admit approximately 50 mentors and mentees next year. Our positive experiences during our first year as a partner have encouraged seven Borenius lawyers to already sign up to serve as mentors.

As the mentoring programme offers unique opportunities to both young and more experienced lawyers, we are very excited and proud to continue our partnership with Oikismentorointiohjelma Ry in 2023 and beyond.