Shannon Bridson on How One Email Turned into Six Years of Mentorship
As part of our ongoing mentor spotlight series, we continue to highlight the incredible individuals and partnerships that help our students thrive, both throughout their undergraduate journeys and long after graduation.
These stories reflect our deep commitment to student success and the belief that mentorship, when done with care and intention, can change the trajectory of someone’s life.
In this article, meet Shannon Bridson, Senior Strategic Planning Advisor in ICBC’s Office of Strategy Management. As a member of the OSM team, Shannon works with senior leaders across ICBC to help shape and support the development and delivery of corporate and business strategies.
When Shannon Bridson welcomed her son nearly three years ago, one of the first people to meet him was her mentee, Orla Moore. While this may seem like a small detail, it speaks to the relationship the two have built over more than six years.
As mentor and mentee, Shannon and Orla have shown up for each other once a month without fail: through Orla’s undergrad, her co-ops, and now her master’s degree, as well as major milestones in Shannon’s life, like promotions, buying a house, and becoming a parent. Somewhere along the way, mentor and mentee became something closer to family.
It started, like so many of these stories do, with an email:
“Mentor a student through Beedie Luminaries!
This fall, over 60 new students will be joining UBC through Beedie Luminaries – a social-profit enterprise designed to remove barriers by providing financial assistance and wrap-around support to promising students who are facing financial adversity. An integral part of Beedie Luminaries is the Mentorship Program. As a mentor, your support can be vital in building a foundation for success that will last beyond these students’ post-secondary experience.”
In 2020, the UBC alumni network sent out a note about becoming a mentor, and Shannon thought “This sounds really interesting. I was actually working on a project related to wrap-around support at the time, so the idea really resonated with me.”
Reflecting on her own path, from an undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of British Columbia in 2014 to an MBA at SFU’s Beedie School of Business in 2018, she knows firsthand the value of having people in her corner. Along the way, mentors challenged her to grow, supported her through change, and gave her the confidence to take on new challenges.
Signing up was one thing; the commitment behind it was another. Mentors were asked to sign on for a minimum of two years. Shannon remembers thinking, “well, I really hope we get along.” She and Orla clicked almost immediately.
That instant rapport carried them through the years that followed. Throughout Orla’s undergraduate degree, Shannon was there each step of the way. She encouraged Orla to GoGlobal, to study abroad, to take the leap. Orla completed multiple co-ops along the way, and in a full-circle moment, Shannon found herself managing co-op students for the first time while Orla was completing their first co-op. The two connected over their shared experiences.
By the time Orla graduated, the two-year commitment was a distant memory. Over dinner, they made a quiet decision: this wasn’t ending just because the degree had.
Mentorship, Shannon says, is about being willing to share what you can. You don’t have to have all the answers or have everything figured out. You can still be learning and growing while offering your experience, perspective, and support to someone through the ebbs and flows of life.
So when asked what makes a good mentor, Shannon resists giving a formula. There isn’t one, she says. It’s about understanding what would be most helpful, aligning on expectations, and letting the mentorship take shape around the mentee’s needs. If she has knowledge or experience that could help someone through a major life transition, she’s happy to share it when it’s useful.
Six years in, what Shannon hopes for most is simple: that Orla has felt, and still feels supported. Shannon is grateful to have shared in Orla’s journey and proud of all she has accomplished. As Orla makes her way through her master’s degree, Shannon is looking forward to watching what comes next, not just for Orla the student, but for Orla the person, the friend, the future colleague.
That forward-looking spirit is, for Shannon, part of what makes a program like Beedie Luminaries so meaningful. It removes financial barriers, isn’t tied to any one academic field, and connects students with a community of support. It’s a model Shannon believes in, and she encourages anyone considering becoming a mentor to take the leap when the time is right. You don’t have to have everything figured out to have something valuable to share.
Thank you, Shannon.
