Jess
I got into Brandeis through the Posse Foundation. It looks to bring students from underrepresented areas into really top tier universities like Brandeis. And for me, it, you know, it changed the course of my life.
Jess
You know, mentorship itself has impacted my life so greatly. Mentorship has given me a deeper sense of gratitude as well for what I do have and the relationships I have.
Jess
I first met Kim during the third and final Posse interview, and I was just really moved by her really gentle and common presence and reassuring personality. She was actually one of the people that really stood out to me that day. And I knew that she was the person that I really wanted to kind of work on my academic career with The time being here was difficult.
Jess
You know, I lost a parent while I was here and faced a great deal of depression and adjusting to a totally new culture that I've never been a part of. Kim she was a mother in many ways to me when my own mom couldn't be present Meeting with her was the best, you know, therapy a girl could ask for while going through this process.
Jess
I introduced her to my mom as the woman who saved my life at our Posse graduation, because truly, Kim believed in me in ways that you know, I couldn't believe in myself at the time. And, you know, she saw not just my potential, but helped me to get that potential Women in my life have played such an impactful role on me developing my character, my my career, my beliefs.
Jess
It's just amazing. And I think Kim has played a definite role. And in all of that, she was there during my formative years, you know? And so she's had a lasting impact.
Phil
You're about to see Kim. How are you feeling?
Jess
I'm really nervous, but also excited. And then at the same time, there's like, I feel a sense of calm as well. It's been almost ten years without seeing each other. Just feeling a lot of, I think, gratitude is really what sums it up.
Kim
Jess, Jess, look at you
Kim
Oh my god you're so
Kim
Beautiful. So beautiful.
Kim
God.
Jess
Yes, please
Kim
Oh. All right.
Kim
Come brag about yourself. Tell me everything
Jess
It's so weird to be here with you.
Jess
Thank you so much for being with me.
Kim
It's such an honor. And it's so wonderful to be with you. And I haven't seen.
Kim
You in ten.
Jess
Years.
Kim
So me. Tell me about you. Tell me, tell me the happiest thing that's happened to you in the last year. Because I know there's also been a lot of sadness.
Jess
It's been such a hard year. Yeah, Wow. I think, honestly, this is probably the highlight. Like coming back to my favorite city, you know, the city where I was able to become a woman and and just, like, explore my identity, my freedom, you know, all these things. It's been really good. This whole experience feels like such a gift.
Jess
And it comes at a time where things have been so tough with my mom and, you know, not knowing what you know, her treatment is going to look like and what the next situation will be. But, you know, I think I've had to really adapt this year and just staying really fluid and, you know, being ready for anything.
Kim
Yeah. Oh, my gosh. It's just it's like a little miracle. Seeing you
Jess
Yeah. It's so, so weird. So this is happening because I wrote a submission about you and about mentorship and what our relationship has meant to me. Maybe we can just read it now, right?
Kim
Jess
Well, they asked if you could read it
Kim
Mentor. Dr. Kim Godsoe, staff, e.g., academic advisor, career counselor, coach, etc.. I met Dr. Kim. Godsoe in 2008, when I was a senior in high school during the Posse Foundation's annual Dynamic Assessment process, I noticed Kim right away during the interview process. She was composed she had compassion and understanding.
Kim
I knew I had to tell my story during these interviews, and I knew I could trust Kim with it.
Kim
I remember the last day of interviews for the scholarship. We all stood in a circle and she stood across from me. I teared up saying Thank you to everyone. And I believe she did, too. I did I knew this process had changed me. And it and if chosen could have freedom from a lifetime of abuse and violence. I could be the first in my family, the first woman to go away to school to on a full scholarship.
Kim
I waited in anticipation to hear the decision in December of 2008. I found out I would be a Brandeisian. Words fail to capture how Kim Godsoe and the Posse Foundation rerouted the course of my life. They effectively removed me from a home of violence and replaced it with eight semesters of freedom, schooling and opportunity. Kim was my academic counselor while I was a student.
Kim
She listened intently to my issues and helped me find solutions. Most of all, she held a mirror up to me. She guided me to therapy services on campus, which irrevocably changed my life for the better. She also told me the hard truth when I wasn't reaching the goals I had set. She taught me to show up on time to my appointments and to manage my schedule better.
Kim
She gave me plans and ideas and how to get my shit together. She is absolutely, undeniably a reason for my success today. You know you're the reason for your success today. It's all you like I'm just there kind of asking a few questions and doing a few nudges, like your... It's you Jess. It really is. It's just I happened to see the light God when I introduced Kim to my mother at our special Posse graduation, I said, Mom, this is the woman who saved my life.
Kim
Dr. Godsoe believed in me. She saw something in me that I did not know existed, and she gave me a chance. I can't tell you how important this is. To give some someone a chance. It can change everything. And it did for me. To Kim, I say thank you for loving me as a teen and shaping me into a woman over the course of four years.
Kim
You gave me a mother's love when I was far from my own. You gave me hope and a possibility In the Bible, Jeremiah 2911 talks about plans to give you hope and a future. I believe God sent you and many other incredible women and men into my life to give me just this hope and a future. Thank you for all you guided me through.
Kim
I love you. I love you, too. With my heart and soul. Always have always will. And you need to know that when you look back at college, you probably see all the messes and you probably don't credit yourself for all the successes and all the times that you just were brilliant and learning and stunning and pushing the institution and pushing yourself.
Kim
So if you can find a way to give that teenage self the love that person deserves, I think that's going to be huge. God, just seeing how brilliant you are, like helping you get over that river of self-doubt. Right. Watching you grow, watching you fly. I mean, you had gone through a lot by the time you came to Brandeis.
Kim
More than what most students had to go through. So I'm glad you took the time to heal.
Jess
Having you as a mentor. It was... it was You had such an interesting role on campus, right? Like, you're in the Academic Affairs Office and then also this posse liaison. So I felt like you could see me from many different angles, and that was really helpful for me in order to, you know, as I said, get my act together academically.
Jess
I think you kind of having this broad perspective was really helpful for me. And I don't want to impose the role or title of mom on you. You know.
Kim
You can it's OK.
Jess
But yeah, I mean, you helped me in so many ways that, you know, my my own mom could not whether it was because she was in the situation she was in or, you know, because she didn't have the same experiences as me. And I've really been able to look towards, you know, these awesome women in my life to fulfill that role.
Jess
And yeah, now I feel like I kind of do that for other people, too.
Kim
Just know I'm here. Know that I love you, know that I'm proud of you know, that I still think just as you were that shining star in that room with all those Posse finalists and you just shone and I think I said this, I know I said this to you, that it wasn't me that decided it was a unanimous decision to put you in the posse because you shine that bright and you're clearly not 18.
Kim
You're clearly not in college. You're clearly an accomplished, talented woman with so much goodness to come and your star just keeps shining brighter.
Jess
Brandeis has been a safe space for me. It's been a space of deep learning, of curiosity, of discovery, and a lot of healing Yeah, life would be very different without Posse, without Kim, without Brandeis.Things have definitely turned out for the better.