Flipping the Script: Reverse Mentoring & the Power of Lived Experience - Adventures in Advising

Do you know what reverse mentoring is and its benefits? In this episode, Matt and Ryan sit down with Rachael O’Connor from University of Leeds to explore how reverse mentoring and relationship-centered advising can transform campus culture, especially for working class and first-gen students. From her journey from tax law to teaching, to building staff/student partnerships that actually change policies, Rachael shares real wins, real challenges, and no-fluff strategies you can use next week.

You’ll learn:

• What reverse mentoring is (and isn’t)
• Smart ways to make personal tutoring/advising more equitable and authentic
• How to navigate power dynamics without losing momentum
• Why “imposter syndrome” hits working-class students differently
• Practical, repeatable meeting structures that turn good intentions into action

About our guest: Rachael O’Connor is an Associate Professor in Legal Education and the University Academic Lead for Personal Tutoring at the University of Leeds, a former solicitor, and a trustee with LawCare. Her award-winning work builds student-led initiatives where lived experience is treated as expertise—and it’s seriously changing the game.

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