# @princetonspia on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/B79472YhXap
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/20742514-princetonspia-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/7086f8b23b.jpg
- **Posted:** 2020-01-31T02:19:41.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Princeton SPIA (@princetonspia) — https://gondola.cc/princetonspia

## Caption

“The community of alumni of color was critical to my decision to attend the wilson_school. During admitted students’ weekend last spring, the wws_saoc symposium demonstrated to me the kind of space WWS would hold for this discourse, and gave me a glimpse of a tight-knit, whip-smart, and intergenerational #community of activists and thinkers that I wanted to be a part of. Given the relatively small size of cohorts here, it was a lightbulb moment that illustrated how the intimacy meant the community spread vertically throughout the years, not simply horizontally within a cohort. The fall #mentorship retreat made this manifest. After two months together, my classmates and I had heard each other’s two-line introductions so often we could likely have recited them from memory. But, going around the room and introducing ourselves to the mentors, I was struck by how different our introductions were in this setting — classmates foregrounded their challenges managing multiple identities and shared experiences that had remained in the shadows up until that point. The mentors themselves were not just illustrious #alumni doing a favor, they were deeply engaged in the project of fostering a more diverse civic leadership, and actively seeking to share their experiences in the sector. Eavesdropping on two of them chatting casually during a break, their immediate and imperative ‘come, sit down and join us’ was enthusiastic, not permissive. As they sought and offered support and insight to and from each other and us on the challenges of navigating professional trajectories as a person of color, I was left at the end of the day with a deep sense of gratitude and excitement that I get to continue to be in conversation with these people throughout my life.” – Sujata Rajpurohit MPA ’21 #Princetagram #MentoringMonth #ThankYourMentorDay

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## Tags

princetagram, thankyourmentorday, mentorship, mentoringmonth, community, alumni

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