Interview: Senior Fellow Mikki Shares Her Experience of the Mentor Program

I feel that with the guidance offered by my mentor, the trust I have in myself that I can make things happen if I try enough to, has grown. 

Mikki, 2025 Amsterdam Fellow, was at first unsure about the focus and scale of her Action Project. Through the mentor program, she gained confidence and paved a clear path towards her goal: organizing a colonial walking tour in her own neighborhood, aimed at sharing histories and bringing people together. Her collaboration with Senior Fellow Lucas Schucht helped Mikki focus her ideas, take concrete steps, and realize the potential impact of any project, no matter the scale.

We spoke to Mikki about her mentor program experience during and after the Fellowship.

Please explain shortly the goal and execution of your Action Project.

For my Project, I am creating a colonial walking tour in the neighbourhood where I grew up, in order to bring people together and to stimulate awareness of diverse histories and interconnected presents. I will invite a group of roughly 20 acquaintances who have either grown up there, or live there currently, whom I will take on an hour walk to 3 significant spots where I will share stories of the past and present. During the tour, I will discuss the colonial past of the Dutch Indies, more specifically the arrival of people from present-day Indonesia in the Netherlands resulting the independence war from 1945-1948. Second, I will discuss how power structures move their way into the subconscious and the everyday by highlighting the politics of street names in Amsterdam – demonstrating the vast majority of (white) male figures represented in these. And last, I will discuss the commemoration practices in the Netherlands on their slavery past, focusing on a monument that reflect this troubled Dutch history. After the tour, I will invite the participants for a drink at my parents’ house, so that we can reflect together on the information that has been shared throughout the tour.

What was one challenge you discussed with your mentor, and how did that conversation shape your approach?

A challenge was to keep the scope narrow and not wanting to do too much for this project. I had many ideas to start with, and once I finally did decide on an idea, I felt like it would not be (impactful) enough. But my mentor was of major help here, since Lucas had done the program at HiA himself once before, and was familiar with this challenge. Therefore, he was able to guide me towards a more narrowed down project, by explaining to me that this project is mainly to get me to take action, no matter the size of the impact. Just trying to get something to happen would be good enough in itself. This conversation, then, helped me to focus on one goal, without getting worried that it would not be enough.

How has your mentor helped you in your professional or personal development?

Lucas is a very good listener, so he allowed me to share my ideas and thoughts with him, after which he had some very insightful questions that helped me shape these into a feasible project. Moreover, he created a timeline while listening to my thoughts, which was a major help in planning the next steps. Ultimately, this helped a lot to make the project tangible, without a major sense of feeling overwhelmed. After this, it has been very helpful to receive messages from him once in a while to remind me of the dates we set for achieving any of the following steps towards the end-goal. This helped me to stay motivated, because I knew someone else was excited to see how my efforts would work out.

What is the most important insight you gained from your mentor/the mentor program?

I think the most important insight occurred right when I first met Lucas in around the start of September. At this stage, I was still quite stressed about what to do for my Action Project, and how to go about it. I had a vision that was not going to be achievable in the months up to December. Lucas himself was far calmer about it than me, which made me realize that the project is more about me trying something out, than it is about making the biggest impact in the world. He really made me perceive of the project as a way to bridge lessons I have learned in the past year, and topics that I care about, to people within my own community. From there, working on the project became way more fun and inspiring, rather than stressful.

What does it mean to you to be part of the Senior Fellow Network in which different generations work together?

I feel like a have people standing beside me that care about the world in a similar way as I do. The topics that we dealt with during the program – and many of us often deal with in relation to work and/or studies – can feel very daunting at times, even slightly paralyzing when they come together. The Senior Fellow Network is a place where people with shared thoughts and feelings can come together, find support, and challenge each other. Working in activism, during which I can feel like a solitary fish swimming against a shoal, the Network reminds me that there are other fish out there that swim with me.

Based on your experience with the mentor program, what would you tell someone who’s considering applying for the Fellowship?

I would say that the mentor program made me feel more secure, which reminded me that this whole Fellowship program has been a way to explore, learn and grow. Part of that is making mistakes and perhaps doing things you would later in life look back on and think: ‘oh, I could have done this differently’. But that is the beauty of such a program, where making mistakes and trying things for the first time is allowed, in order to grow into a better activist – even into a better person. I feel that with the guidance offered by my mentor, the trust I have in myself that I can make things happen if I try enough to, has grown. So thank you, Lucas :).

Interested in becoming a mentor for one of our Amsterdam Fellows? Find out more information about mentoring here.