Over the past 6 years, I’ve had the chance to mentor two college intern teams, one high school group, and a master’s capstone team from NC State University .
Each team was different, but my goal of guiding them through the design process, teaching them how UX works in the real world was the same.
At Optum, I managed the intern and high school teams full-time during the summer. We had daily standups, 1-on-1s, design reviews, and performance reviews. But what made it meaningful was helping them go from “I’ve heard of the term UX…” to actually doing the work: research, personas, journey mapping, story writing, wireframes, prototypes, and presenting like pros. Two of the teams ended up winning their competitions, which was a proud moment for everyone involved.
With the master’s students at NC State, I met with them twice a week to talk strategy, give feedback, and push their thinking a bit. I wanted them to think through strategy and design just as a senior designer would approach a messy, complex project. My goal was to challenge them to think critically about the full experience.
What I enjoyed most was seeing students get excited about UX, especially the ones who had never been exposed to it before. I didn’t discover UX until later in my career, so I make it a point to show others what it’s all about. It’s creative, collaborative, challenging, and honestly, kind of fun when you’re in the flow.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from mentoring, it’s that you don’t need to have all the answers. You just need to show up, be real, and create space for others to learn and explore. For other mentors I would say take every opportunity you can to teach, challenge and encourage others.
UX has given me so much. Being able to pass some of that is something that I don’t take for granted.
