Take a Mentor Minute with Zena Lum: August 2026
By: Zena Lum, WOC National Advisory Committee Member and Mentorship Expert
Take a Mentor Minute with Zena Lum is a monthly advice column where Zena imparts expertise to empower mentors and deepen their relationships with their mentees.
I don’t know if this is the case for all of you, but summer has flown by, and I find it hard to believe that we have less than a week before the Labor Day holiday. I hope each of you made time to rest, re-set, and reflect.
Reflection is a request I recently made of one of my current and longtime WOC mentees, Evelyn R. Hernandez, MPA, CFRE. An active member of WOC, Evelyn is also in the current Check-in Chicas cohort, as well as a recipient of WOC’s 2025 Shine Award, and contributed to the April edition of WOC e-news.
This month, I posed a few questions about the role mentorship has played in her personal and professional life and here are her responses:
What does mentorship, formal and/or informal, mean to you?
Mentorship means having a person with whom there is mutual trust, who has your best interest, providing guidance to help you grow.
What role have formal and/or informal mentors had in your life?
I have had the privilege of having both. Early in my career, I looked to a colleague with a strong understanding of how a development shop should operate. She helped me understand there were parameters I had to be mindful of to do my job effectively. Formally, having a relationship with a mentor who is an experienced leader challenged me to pursue my CFRE certification and taught me not to limit myself. While one relationship started organically and the other came about through WOC’s Mentor Match program, both mentors helped shape my perspective, how I see the development space as well as myself in it.
Why did you decide to participate in WOC's Mentor Match and Check-in Chica programs?
I believe it is important to talk about the issues we face in the workplace with individuals who can share their own perspective while also having shared lived experiences. Although mentorship has universal characteristics regardless of the setting, through WOC it’s the commonality that makes a difference. There is a deeper mutual understanding of what we share with one another.
I want to thank Evelyn for sharing her personal insights and experience with all of us. I hope you might be inspired to explore mentorship as a mentee and/or mentor and register for the next WOC Mentor Match or Check-in Chica cohorts. Look in your mailbox for application notices in early fall.
If you have questions about these signature programs, you can reach me at YFJ Consulting or connect with me on LinkedIn.
Zena Lum
WOC National Advisory Committee Member and Mentorship Expert
