#YourIIG Roots and wings 2020 was launched with an exciting day at Constantia Insurance. The day started with IIG President Elect, Darryl Grater, who welcomed the 27 mentees and mentors on the programme and mentioned how this programme has grown from strength to strength, starting with nine mentorship partnerships to twenty seven mentorship partnerships four years later. This makes 2020 our biggest intake.
Suren Kasil, who will be looking after the programme as he is part of the IIG Council, shared a few words of motivation and inspiration. Suren looks forward to watching the bonds between mentor and mentees grow through this experience.
Alex Taljaard from Constantia said a few words as our venue host for the day and noted that Constantia wanted to be involved in this experience, as there is nothing more personal than mentoring. The stage was then handed over to Linda Coetzee and Jenna Coetzee who shared word of wisdom and motivation for the year ahead. Bukhosi and Tatum, who were mentees on the Roots and Wings journey in 2019, came and shared their stories with the 2020 Mentors and Mentees – an emotive experience!
The rest of the day was filled with networking and a briefing on the expectations for the months to come. This ensures both mentors and mentees get the most out of the programme.
The launch was followed by the Roots and Wings Pairing Events which was held at Emerald. This marked the start of a nine month journey for the twenty seven mentor partnerships.
All mentees were interviewed to ensure we had a set of go-getters and then matched with mentors to ensure meaningful connections for the pair. The pairing event showcased the success of this process as mentors and mentees immediately connected and began having insightful conversations. It was truly an inspiration to see such excitement and care amoungst the group.
Following these events, the mentees and mentors will meet once a month. The meetings will follow guidelines to ensure that each conversation is meaningful and the time is well spent. We look forward to following this journey.
A special thank you to mentor colleagues and managers that were present for the launch and pairing event.
