Growing into the Role: Learning from Lana

Lana Bohsali

• Position: Higher Education Coordinator

• A brief description of their role:

  Overseeing and ensuring that any affair regarding curriculum, professional development, or academic trajectory is personalized and tailored per the individualistic need, within the respective community being served.

• Summarize your main takeaways from the interview:

  In working a lot under the Higher Education Coordinator, it became undeniably evident how much attention to detail, planning and refining, and temperament one must carry in order to properly execute in this role. Additionally, I’ve come to understand, in shadowing Lana, that rather than immediately seeking for something that can be “fixed”, rather, one should consider the entire story and context a person bores before devising a plan for improvement.

What skills or qualities do you wish interns developed most through this role?

Lana emphasized that the most important skills interns develop are relational before technical: becoming a trusted presence by approaching students as people first. She spoke about the need for temperament, empathy, and genuine comfort with students’ stories, noting that trust is what ultimately allows students to stay engaged and open. From that foundation, creativity and strong communication become essential: especially when supporting college essays and navigating personal goals. She was clear that effective mentoring requires setting aside one’s own agenda and instead tailoring support to students’ specific needs, whether that means adjusting activities, writing support, or helping them access resources in ways that feel relevant to their lives.

How do you balance supporting sites while also managing sustainability and growth for MAPS?

In discussing sustainability and growth, Lana framed balance as an ongoing practice rather than a fixed strategy. She highlighted the importance of consistency paired with flexibility—being willing to adapt in real time as sites and student needs evolve. She also reflected on how MAPS’ focus on higher education gives tutoring deeper meaning, explaining that even a single tutoring session can shift how a student understands their future. By helping interns see the long-term implications of small, consistent interventions, Lana underscored how intentional support at the site level sustains MAPS’ broader mission while allowing it to grow thoughtfully.

Using the skill/s they gave you, answer this question: Where have I already used this skill, and how does it show up differently at the site level vs. the organizational level?

I’ve already practiced these skills in distinct but complementary ways across both levels of MAPS. At the site level, they show up through consistent, student-centered tutoring: adapting plans in real time to each student’s individual needs, learning styles, and goals, and prioritizing trust so support feels personal rather than prescriptive. At the organizational level, these same skills translate into creativity and initiative: offering ideas that anticipate student needs beyond a single session and being resourceful in connecting them to opportunities such as grade-appropriate scholarships, college planning tools, and application support. While the site level demands presence and responsiveness, the organizational level asks for a broader, more strategic application of the same empathy and adaptability.