By Andie Link, Class of 2025
This article is a part of a series of student stories of growth curated for the 2025 One Event. If you enjoy this story, please donate and tell us which student’s story inspired you to give.
At One Stone each student is paired with a staff member that is your mentor. Typically mentors meet with their mentees individually every other week. Your mentor is there to support you with school work, assess your growth, give you advice when you need it, and be a consistent adult at One Stone for you to go to.
My mentor is Sam Johnson, and our first meeting probably went down in The Hall of Fame of Most Awkward Mentor Meetings. As a fresh One Stone student, I was initially shut down and painfully shy; this reflected strongly in my interactions and the way I showed up. One of the things Sam asked me in an attempt at conversation was what my favorite ice cream flavor was. I halfheartedly mumbled that I didn't know. What I meant to say was vanilla.
While that was truly a terrible conversation, purely because of my lack of participation in it, to this day I look back on it with fondness. That one conversation acts as an artifact, a memorial you could say, of shut-down little Andie that couldn't muster up the guts to say her favorite ice cream flavor. I believe that if that same little Andie could see us now she would gape in disbelief at the conversations she's held, the words that have poured from her mouth, the animated faces she regularly expresses, and the real raw feelings she has shared with the world. She might ask herself, "what the heck happened?" But if she were to be able to watch a compilation of all the pivotal moments in her growth, Sam Johnson would be a highly featured character.
While watching that compilation, she might see many more awkward mentor meetings: walks down the green belt spent in peaceful silence, conversations about the heat transferring technology of ducks, fist bumps and high-fives after presentations, Run Club on Wednesday evenings, and many, many instances of Sam telling her she is not a robot and can't expect herself to act like one.
Over the last three and a half years, the Sam and Andie Mentor Duo has evolved in many ways. What once were painfully awkward conversations have, for the most part, become free flowing and easy. I trust Sam wholeheartedly and I know that no matter what I can be authentic around him. Questions like "what is your favorite ice cream flavor” don't make me break out in a sweat any more, and I have no problem saying, “vanilla.”
I have grown in a variety of significant ways while being at One Stone. I've found new passions and pushed myself to explore the things that I used to be too scared of to pursue. I have practiced being vulnerable with my community. I have learned that I am capable of hard things, and now I regularly do things to push beyond my preconceived limits. I am so proud to say that I embrace myself fully and can be authentic with those around me. And while most of the credit for that personal growth goes to myself, I am so grateful for having Sam there along the way. In every perfect moment, I had Sam to remind me that I was capable, and that he trusted me. I think that all little Andie needed was someone to tell her that she was capable.
