Life of a Fellow: Bintou Dembele
Our work isn’t just captured in scholarships earned or college acceptances. (Although they’re always great to celebrate!)
It’s seen in the community of our schools, the insights and care of our students, and in the personal growth of our staff.
Meet Bintou
Bintou Dembele was born and raised in Harlem, NY and is a Bryn Mawr Alum with a degree in Sociology and Data Science. Outside of advising students, she loves to go on spontaneous trips, wherever her feet take hers, and loves doing things for the plot.
My Top 5 Moments as a Mastbaum Fellow!! #GoPanthers
Transitioning from being a high school math teacher to becoming a Fellow, has been doing wonders for my nervous system. Someone reading this would probably wonder why I would go from being a teacher to being a Fellow, but truthly I am doing what I’m deeply passionate about and what I believe my purpose is: helping the youth in under-represented communities gain access to resources that will help them become successful.
As a child, I’ve always known I would be in a career where I am helping others, because that’s what really matters. I couldn’t imagine myself just creating spreadsheets, typing in numbers, and doing projects that I just really didn’t care about. Being a Fellow here at Mastbaum has been deeply rewarding and here are a few reasons why:
Our First Welcoming Event – Coming from working at a smaller school and now entering a bigger school, I was very nervous being around so many students. I was told that the graduating class was around 100+ students and my anxiety started to kick in. Why is my grown-self anxious being around so many students? I couldn’t really give an answer, but as someone who is socially awkward, this was a massive change for me. Still, I was ready to face it. We had ordered pizza, wings, snacks, and drinks for the students and as they lined up to grab their lunch, it was very refreshing to see the smiles on their faces as they greeted me. As the event went on, students welcomed me in their conversations and asked me a million questions about myself and told me their plans for after they graduated. A small interaction turned out to be a confirmation that I was right where I needed to be and I was very excited to help these amazing students with the post secondary plans they were so eager about.
My Birthday - As my birthday is during Winter break, before break, students barged into my office. To be fair, I was having an overstimulating day. Working with students all day can really get you there (if you know you know.) However, I couldn’t help but be filled with joy when they sang “1,2,3 Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to Ms. Bintou. Happy Birthday to you. WOOOOOO claps claps claps”. As they were chanting, I covered my face, fighting back tears. Why is a girl like me about to cry in front of high-schoolers for just singing me happy birthday? I thanked them and thought about how at my old school, they never did that for me. I felt really appreciated and I was also given a birthday card, although my name was spelled completely wrong after spending roughly 4 long months helping them apply to colleges and get their FAFSA in. Haha, it’s the thought that counts right?
Programming for 9th and 10th graders - Something I didn’t expect to be doing as a Fellow was working with all of the other grades outside of the seniors, but that’s what makes working at Mastbaum so special. You get insight on working with the whole school. We were truly a part of the community. So, not only did I have to face 100+ seniors, I had to face a school of 300+... GREAT! This has really helped me get out of my comfort zone and my facilitating skills— oh 10/10! One of the programs that I truly enjoyed was the social emotional wellness one. It was about managing your emotions and handling conflict properly so it doesn't lead you into any trouble or cause you to make decisions you will later on regret down the line. I ain’t no expert, but my initial dream career was to become a therapist, so this was close to it, sort of? We had an activity where we had to improv a scenario of how you would manage this conflict. The students were very creative. They had a friend conflict and they had a student teacher conflict which was of course a part of the presentation so this was a perfect time for them to act wild. For one particular session, before we even reached the activity portion, a real life example occurred when a student said something and another student reacted and it turned into a whole altercation. The altercation de-escalated quickly, but it worked really well with our presentation to show how what we were saying to them wasn’t just “rubbish” (nonsense) but something that actually mattered in real life – perfect segue.
New Team - As at any job, people come and people leave. So, being a team of two instead of three was quite a struggle with having to take on many more responsibilities, but I believe we handled it really well! As months went by, we were blessed with another team member that made things run smoothly all over again. Being in a team of black women has been very comforting for me. It really allowed me to grow in areas such as speaking up more, getting out of my comfort zone, and being a leader. As a very reserved, shy, introverted person, this role in general has forced me to become more extroverted and get out of my bubble. When working in large teams, it’s very beneficial to be communicative outside of your work responsibilities. That’s how you build meaningful connections and you can learn so much since we all have different but also similar backgrounds.
Acceptances and Internships - Of course, which should be everyone's best moments, ACCEPTANCES!!! As colleges have been rolling out acceptances, students have been coming to us and updating us that they’ve been accepted into so many colleges. Seeing the smile on their faces has filled me up with gratitude that all the work we’ve been doing has led us to this moment! I was so excited for May 1st— which was Decision Day— to see which colleges students have chosen to attend! STAY TUNED!!
All in all, I have been loving my position as a Fellow and I can’t wait to see what the next school year brings!
