Cecilia Has Helped Me to Find My Way

When Cecilia and Evin started their mentor-year Evin was insecure and felt scared of moving outside her comfort area. She wasn’t keen on using public transport and double-checked her travels again and again. They usually met close to Evin’s home in Vårby but as they got to know each other they could travel further and further.

15 February 2016 | Blog

A portrait of a mother and her daughter on the beach

– The mentor program has been good for me. I used to stay at home studying and rarely saw other places. I was very shy and was simply too insecure to go anywhere. Cecilia has helped me to find my way. Not only when it comes to which high school programs I should choose or what summer jobs I should apply for, but she has also encouraged me to try new things, says Evin.

In the beginning, it was wobbly and a little bit tentative, both regarding their conversations and that time when they went skating in the center of Stockholm.

I thought I would be awesome at skating, that I'd simply slide across the ice. But it wasn’t like that at all, says Evin.

Despite the fact that one of them is a process engineer at AstraZeneca and the other is in her first year of high school, they have discovered that they are often thinking about the same things but from slightly different perspectives.

Cecilia says that Evin is curious about the future and the adult world, which is something she recognizes from when she was a teenager. Like Evin, she was a gentle and shy person who liked to have set plans for her life. But this changed as she got older and lived abroad.

Evin has become more courageous, both in terms of things she gets involved in and the things she dares to discuss and tell me. Now she can travel in the subway and she says what she thinks and wants, says Cecilia.

The mentor year is over, but Cecilia and Evin still meet.

– Cecilia is an adult that I can talk to and ask questions. My parents grew up in Turkey. They lived a different life and had a different upbringing. With Cecilia I have been able to do things that I haven’t done before and seen things I haven’t seen before, says Evin.

– I have learned a lot from Evin. I honestly wasn’t prepared for that at all. We both have learned how important it is to be clear with one another, says Cecilia.

AstraZeneca supports Mentor Sweden in their work to give young people self-esteem and the ability to grow through mentoring.