{"id":24000,"date":"2021-08-26T00:01:55","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T04:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpa.ca\/?p=24000"},"modified":"2022-11-10T09:11:19","modified_gmt":"2022-11-10T14:11:19","slug":"spotlight-cpa-student-mentor-lauren-trafford-and-mentee-mattia-gregory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cpa.ca\/fr\/spotlight-cpa-student-mentor-lauren-trafford-and-mentee-mattia-gregory\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight: CPA Student Mentor Lauren Trafford and Mattia Gregory"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lauren
\nLauren Trafford<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n

Lauren Trafford and Mattia Gregory have never met in person. As we speak, they are as close as they have ever come – Lauren is in a little motel in Saskatchewan, taking some time out of her journey to speak to us on Zoom. She\u2019s in the process of traveling back across Canada from her family home in Ontario to school in Edmonton. For the first time since she began mentoring Mattia, they are actually in the same province at the same time. And yet, with COVID, they will not be meeting in person right now \u2013 and maybe not ever.<\/p>\n

Lauren came to the CPA Mentorship Program in a very pro-active way. She started a mentorship program of her own at her school, the University of Alberta \u2013 there was a big need for peer-to-peer mentorship from people at different levels. As she began this process, she got deep into the literature about mentorship in general \u2013 how it looked in various places, how it can benefit students. When she saw the ad for the CPA Mentorship Program, it seemed like a logical next step from what she was already doing.<\/p>\n

\"Mattia
\nMattia Gregory<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n

Mattia, at the University of Saskatchewan, was having a lot of trouble trying to make sense of what her school\u2019s guidance counselors were telling her. It seemed like they were throwing dozens of things at her, many of them contradictory, and she felt that the Student Mentorship program at the CPA could provide her with a little more direction. Especially for the next year, grad school, and the path forward.<\/p>\n

\n

TAKE FIVE WITH LAUREN TRAFFORD AND MATTIA GREGORY<\/h4>\n

You can listen to only one musical artist\/group for the rest of your life. Who is it?<\/strong>
\nLauren:<\/em><\/strong> Every song that comes on the radio is my favourite song! But if I have to pick one, it would be Elton John \u2013 he has a large enough catalogue that I would have variety!
\nMattia:<\/em><\/strong> I\u2019m like Lauren, I love every song. But I\u2019m obsessed with the Backstreet Boys, and they\u2019re starting to release new music, so I\u2019m really excited.<\/p>\n

Favourite word<\/strong>
\nLauren:<\/em><\/strong> I think it\u2019s \u201cy\u2019all\u201d! I worked with a lady from Texas and I still find myself calling a group of people \u201cy\u2019all\u201d!
\nMattia:<\/em><\/strong> I don\u2019t use the word \u2018serendipity\u2019, but I saw it as a kid and loved it \u2013 and now I have a poster and a pillow with the word on it in my room \u2013 even though I\u2019ve never used it in real life!<\/p>\n

Favourite quote<\/strong>
\nMattia:<\/em><\/strong> \u201cI\u2019m not superstitious \u2013 I\u2019m a little stitious\u201d \u2013 Michael Scott (The Office<\/em>). That\u2019s also on a poster in my room!
\nLauren:<\/em><\/strong> It\u2019s ALSO a Michael Scott quote! It\u2019s from an episode where he\u2019s asked if he\u2019d rather be feared or loved, and says \u201cboth! I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you could spend a day in someone else\u2019s shoes who would it be and why?<\/strong>
\nMattia:<\/em><\/strong> My older brother \u2013 he\u2019s in med school, and the stories he tells me make me think I\u2019d love to be present there, just to see what\u2019s going on and what he does!
\nLauren:<\/em><\/strong> There\u2019s a lady named Elyn Saks whose TED Talk I just watched, and she has schizophrenia. She talked a lot about her experiences. I think that as much as we learn about these kinds of disorders, and how they manifest, I\u2019m not really interested in the symptoms so much as I\u2019m interested in the lived experience. So I\u2019d be really curious to know what it\u2019s like to live a day in her life.<\/p>\n

If you could become an expert at something outside psychology, what would it be?<\/strong>
\nMattia:<\/em><\/strong> As a kid I really wanted to be a marine biologist because I loved the ocean\u2026so something involving the ocean…which is really broad but I\u2019d love it!
\nLauren:<\/em><\/strong> Cooking! I\u2019m a terrible cook, but I would love to be a food connoisseur expert instead of a Kraft-Dinner-loving boring cook.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As we are speaking, Lauren is working with Mattia on applying to a grad school within the next couple of weeks. They connected most recently yesterday, when Lauren provided a list of schools, programs, and deadlines to simplify the process. Mattia has been looking over those options for the past 24 hours, and says \u201cI don\u2019t think I could ever have got here on my own\u201d. It\u2019s not immediately obvious for students finishing up their undergrad what the next steps entail, and where to look for that information. This is one of the reasons a mentor comes in extremely handy!<\/p>\n

Says Lauren, \u201cI think the value of mentorship is immeasurable, when you think about the amount of information that\u2019s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also says that she and Mattia ended up being a great match because their interests are so aligned. \u201cI remember being in her position, not knowing what I was going to do. I actually ended up going to art school before I ever did psychology because I was just so confused. And even when I knew what I wanted, there was still an enormous amount of information to wade through. I feel like my experience as an undergraduate, in grad school, and even up to today has been a huge amount of Google. It\u2019s a research mission at every step, where you don\u2019t really have a good idea of what\u2019s out there until you\u2019ve been there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mattia says, \u201cLauren\u2019s the person I lean on when I\u2019m overwhelmed \u2013 just letting her know that I\u2019m having trouble with this whole COVID online thing. With my profs we can\u2019t really talk one-on-one about how school\u2019s going, so it\u2019s nice to have Lauren there to let her know how I\u2019m feeling, and it\u2019s nice to know she feels the same way too, that I\u2019m not the only one in this world going through this.\u201d<\/p>\n

It would be nice if they could lean on one another in person. But few CPA mentors and mentees actually meet during their mentorship \u2013 most are at different schools, so the mentorship tended to happen virtually even before COVID. For these two, this Zoom meeting, with some guy from the CPA, while they happen to be in the same province might be the closest they ever come to actually meeting one another. But their shared experiences, and their shared interests, and their passion for their chosen field makes it certain that they will run in the same circles for a long time to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Lauren
\n\"Mattia<\/p>\n

Lauren Trafford and Mattia Gregory have never met in person. This Zoom meeting, with some guy from the CPA, while they happen to be in the same province might be the closest they ever come to actually meeting one another. Their shared experiences, and their shared interests, and their passion for their chosen field makes it certain that they will run in the same circles for a long time to come.<\/p>\n

Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n

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