It is my honor to chat about mentorship as part of #DEHEMChat for @DisInHigherEd. I want to learn about you & the landscape of mentoring in those with disabilities. I have questions for those with disabilities and allies, so there is something for everyone here! Retweet & engage

First off, I am no expert in mentoring. I am excited for hosting this chat as this is one of the most important things in my growth personally and professionally. Let’s get to the questions!

Seen as disability is talked about in such hushed tones in HE/academia, do you find it difficult to find mentors that you relate to?

Have you ever had any openly disabled mentor?

If your mentor was not openly disabled, did you disclose your disability?

If you didn’t disclose, why not? #DEHEMChat

If you are an ally of the Disabled Community and have mentored others before, do you have experience mentoring students with disabilities?

If you are an ally who has mentored a student with disabilities before, did you feel like you could support them in achieving their academic and career goals?

If you answered no, why not? #DEHEMChat

One last question for everyone! How many mentors do you have?

I have more than 4 mentors. Mentors in research. Mentors in helping me improve my finances. Mentors for helping me to share my story & write a book one day. A mentor for helping me in my identity as a person with invisible disabilities & self care. Mentors for disability advocacy

Shoutout to a few of my mentors on Twitter! @TeleseFrancesca @DougZiedonisMD @JohnsonPain @LadeeEye @JimLeBrecht @ASUCSDExternal I am so thankful to each of you and the way that you believe in me empowering me to help others.

I believe that it takes someone who has gotten to where you want to be to help you see the path to get there. I believe that mentoring is critical especially to those who are underrepresented. This is why colleges have programs & help connect Black students to mentors. But there

is something missing. BONUS question! Does your college or university have a mentoring program for students with disabilities

If more of these programs existed, I think that the achievement gaps of students with disabilities getting into graduate school or medical school would begin to close. I am so thankful for @TeleseFrancesca having an #AcademicTwitter, which led me to #DisabilityTwitter

I want to do a shoutout to @Disabled_Docs and @DisabledStem who both have mentoring programs to help disabled students with getting into medical school or graduate school respectively

@Disabled_Docs and @DisabledStem, I would love to hear from you about why you started your respective programs and what you hope for the future of mentoring for students with disabilities?

I would love to share my story with you, I didn’t always have a crew of mentors that I could call on. For most of my academic career that started back in 2002 and the 18 years that it has taken to arrive to the last year towards my Bachelor’s degree, I didn’t have a mentor.

It was after I left my abusive marriage in 2016 and restarted college in 2017 for the first time with Fibromyalgia that I realized the importance of mentorship. I do have to say that your peers who are further along can be your mentors.

In many ways, I see the organizing team of @DisInHigherEd I have had the honor to work with as my new mentors in so many ways. Thank you all for being who you are!

I find that with my mentors, I gain this valuable sounding board for the issues that I experience and instead of looking at a dirt road with trees in the way, I have a guide to help get around and through the roadblocks that happen and they

help me to understand the landscape and how to navigate it to achieve my goals. When I say goals, I really think broadly about the goals I have across my life and I am in a constant pursuit for personal growth. I never want to stop growing and I will always be looking for that

next mentor who will help me grow like @DrOluwoye who messaged with me last night until past 11pm talking about how to pursue my reviews. I find that the diversity of perspectives helps me to expand my lens of what I can and cannot do or how I could optimize what I am already

doing. I feel that the medical model of disability is a big reason why they are not more mentoring programs for students with disabilities and why we have programs developed from people with disabilities by people with disabilities. What can we do?

If we want to see change in the medical model not being the only model that is known. We have to be the change that we want to see. Weird and campy sounding, I know but go with me here for a minute. Have you looked at #MyDisabilityMadeMeGoodAt? Notice something for a minute

The first thing the hashtag says is disability is positive and we fill in why it is positive. We frame the good and maybe then we talk about our disability. I utilize this model as I speak to potential mentors. I don't lead with my disability as a liability, I lead with my

capabilities and then I will share about my disability. This is a catalyst for the social model of disability where I believe that mentoring relationships can really be fostered to help you to achieve your goals. Do you find yourself leading with your disabilities?

As a person with invisible disabilities, I have the privilege to connect on my capabilities and to lead into a conversation about my disabilities. Yet, if a person with a visible disability is speaking with someone after a seminar and networking, the disability is there.

If you have a visible disability, I would love to hear your perspective. Yet, I want to pose that in this new virtual world: We all have invisible disabilities. We may make first contact in any email. Maybe it was in the chat box of a virtual conference where you got an email. We

now are invited to a time to lead with our capabilities or to remain bound to our internalize ableism that causes us to lead with our disability in a version of shame. There is nothing to be ashamed of with being disabled despite everything #AbleismTellsMe or you. I am proud to

be disabled and it is from this place of honoring myself completely, that I seek out these relationships as a catalyst of growth because who you are today will not be the same person that gets a PhD or goes to medical school. We have to constantly grow.

That is my favorite part of being mentored because the questions that a mentor will ask will challenge you to grow in one way or another. I really love the challenge to have someone to celebrate achievement with and to have someone to discuss the hard parts of our research, our

life or our applications to graduate school. I find it hard to get started on my graduate school applications and that is a conversation that I am opening with my mentors. I know what I what to do and have so much passion, I just need that support to take the next step.

What is the next step that you want to take? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now? This where do you see yourself 5 years from now question is about more than your career, it is about everything. If you take steps to grow in areas of your life critical to you, where do you

envision that you will be? I think to find the mentor that you need, we first must cast a vision of what we want for our lives and to find the mentors to help you achieve the vision that you have cast. Having a mentor, whether they are able or disabled, has really helped me to

feel ready to explore what is next in my life and to have the confidence to go after it. Ableism strips away our confidence as people with disabilities when we could into this society, it is the process of self acceptance and self advocacy that begins to reject the lessons of

ableism. We are so much more than the disabilities we have listed in our medical chart that a university or college office accommodates us for or the accessibility that they ensure. We are a community with cultural traditions and a history that I appreciate @CripCampFilm for

showing us on Netflix (if you haven't seen it - watch it). I feel like I finally accept and embrace the social model of disability for the first time in my life and I am proud to be a catalyst within @ucgpc, @_UCSA and @ASUCSDExternal to help others do the same.

Mentorship is beginning a personal relationship where you feel confident to share your personal goals and the barriers you have to achieving them. Mentoring is about you. Who is looking for a mentor? Who is having trouble finding a mentor? Who is ready to....

share their questions, their struggles, their success and to engage in a conversation. Anything that you want to know more about? I love telling stories, but I love reading them more. What qualities do you want in a mentor. I turn this #DEHEMChat to you. Thank you @DisInHigherEd!