Learn From a Leader (LFAL) Event Recap: The Power of Mentorship: Building Connections that Shape Your Future.
On Tuesday, August 24, 2026, WTS Philadelphia hosted a Learn From a Leader (LFAL) panel titled The Power of Mentorship: Building Connections that Shape Your Future. The evening featured an engaging panel of industry leaders, including Toyin Ogunfolaju; Danielle Schroeder, PE, ENV SP; Vince DeFlavia, PE; and Ayesha Hassan, PE, with Amy Liu, ALCP, CM, serving as the event’s moderator.
The evening began with networking bingo and a short presentation on WTS Philadelphia’s mentoring program. The panel discussion explored the impacts of mentorship, including how to get started and the most valuable thing a mentor has done during the panelists' early careers. Much of the conversation covered building mentorship relationships and making the most of the experience. The key takeaways were that anyone can serve as a mentor in some capacity at any point in their career and that mentorship does not always need to be done through a program or official channel.
The evening concluded with a lively Q&A, where attendees continued the conversation and sought advice on when you are ready to become a
mentor, keeping discussions from stalling, and building your personal “board of directors”. Attendees broke out into groups with the panelists and further discussed these topics.
We appreciate our panelists and moderator, whose experiences made mentorship feel more attainable and less intimidating. Thank you to JMT for their generous hospitality in hosting this event.
WTS Philadelphia’s Professional Mentoring Program has opened up applications for the Class of 2026-2027. Only 30 mentor-mentee pairs will be accepted, so please submit your interest by September 25th, 2026.
