Here are some of  the experiences and success stories of our mentees and mentors in our mentorship programs.

Noor Elsaqa (Mentee)

I was at first skeptical about Mentorship Atlanta; I joined it when it first started and didn’t think I was going to be set up with a mentor for some time. Salim Jetha, who introduced me to the program, forwarded my information to the most productive group of people including Moe Mustafa who immediately sent me a list of mentors that I was able to choose from. Within a few days, I was set up with the most wonderful mentor, Dr. Heval Kelli, and together, we hit the ground running. From our very first conversation, he got to know me, my interests, and my goals and together, we planned a schedule; one that would provide basic groundwork of what needed to be done in order for me to be admitted into Medical School.

Dr. Kelli was always more than willing to speak on the phone, communicate through emails and texts, and to even meet personally. That very same month, I began shadowing Dr. Kelli and this lasted all throughout the summer where I was able to gain a GRAND amount of knowledge pertaining to medicine and the local population. Dr. Kelli, as a mentor and as a doctor, has devoted an unbelievable amount of time to me and my medical school applications; we would spend hours over the phone talking and prepping for interviews and discussing different aspects of medicine. The relationship we have built became a solid one ingrained with trust, honesty, and care. Although Dr. Kelli treated me as his only mentee, he had two other mentees whom also exhibited great success this year; one who was admitted to a very prestigious computer science graduate program with the help of Dr. Kelli and the other which graduated from Georgia State University as the valedictorian of his class.

As for me, the amount of frustration, anxiety, and freight building up before interviews and decisions reached a new high. The pacing, frantic texting to Dr. Kelli at odd hours of the night, and the nerves were becoming unbearable; Dr. Kelli was able to calm me and build this confidence in me that I never had before. This confidence and encouragement built within was what allowed me to successfully make it through my interview and calm myself before decisions. After working together all year preparing for the applications and interviews, I was thankfully accepted to medical school of my choice. We also reached out to Dr Arfoosh, who is also a mentor of MA, regarding the specific medical school of my choice. He provided useful advice and introduced me to the appropriate people. My success was a combination of efforts provided by mentors of MA.

Dr. Kelli devotes ample time to all of his mentees assuring their success. My experience with Mentorship Atlanta has been outstanding; it’s not just luck, it’s reality. I have referred numerous people to this program. Through the program, students express exactly what they’re looking for and are matched immediately; numerous colleagues of mine have been referred and are experiencing the same quality and care from  mentors that I have. If there isn’t a mentor on the list that one is interested in, the gracious Moe Mustafa will dig into his grand network of colleagues and assure the mentees he will find someone of their interest. Mentorship Atlanta has been the best of my experiences in 2013 and I look forward to spending many more years with this program and my prodigious mentor.