San Francisco, CA, US July 2008

Challenge of a lifetime? I have had the privilege of being in two of the three BizAcademy Workshops this summer. With both of them being a challenge and something new to learn, I not only learned how to code or how to do "on mouse over out" or that quotation mark is not in the right place, I had the challenge of presenting in front of a group or my peers and with four very talented adults! I not only learned how to structure my presentation or learned how to own a pause and eliminate fillers ("umm", "like", "yeah") I learned a lot about myself and am not afraid to get up in front of my group as long as I have my structure! I cannot thank the Foundation Team enough for having these wonderful workshops. The only thing that I can do is look forward to the last workshop and can't wait to put those finishing touches on so that my training wheels can come off!

I have also had the privilege on being apart of the Mentor/Mentee Program here at Salesforce. This program that allows the BizAcademy graduates to have a Mentor and experience a different kind of relationship. As a mentee, my mentor is there to help me with all those things that I will need help with. Just being there to lend a ear or helping to seek out a job, or for many of us being there to help fill out college applications. That process can be grueling and its nice to have someone to help along the way. I heard it said in the BizAcademy Amazing Presentation Skills Workshop that our mentors can also assist us in our presentation skills informing us what we can improve on or what the presentation can use. It's great to have a mentor to be an audience when we have a presentation that needs practice. The mentors are there for us for whatever it is that we may need. I have heard it said that you can define a mentor as a live resource page.

It is a experience that I am thankful to have. This program has impacted me in many ways. The biggest way that it has impacted me was having someone be a listening ear. My mentor has been there every morning! I am able to chat with her for a minimum of ten minutes and that has impacted me. I know that I can count on her! This is a fantastic program and I am thankful that I am apart of mentor/mentee program!

Leeann C

Foundation Community Involvement Coordinator - Summer 2008