Jenny Dallan, a young environmental professional, works for Ontario Parks, coordinating school programs across the province. Don Carruthers Den Hoed works at the University of British Columbia, where he leads the Canadian Parks Collective for Innovation and Leadership.

Jenny applied to a mentorship program offered by the organization Don runs. Though she wasn’t selected, they exchanged a few emails—Jenny was looking for feedback to improve her application. After a bit of back-and-forth, Don encouraged her to apply to the CoalitionWILD Global Mentorship Program, which if you don’t know is one of our programs here at WILD.org. She applied as a mentee. He applied as a mentor.

Jenny was initially paired with someone else, but when her original mentor backed out due to personal reasons, she ended up matched with Don! Clearly, these two were meant to teach each other some valuable working lessons.

And both of them agree that their experience with the mentorship program was transformative… It wasn’t a case of one person teaching while the other learned. It was about uplifting each other, in both directions. That’s what we call intergenerational work. And that’s what creates hope. And, if we're being honest, it feels like we could use more of that these days: hope AND different generations working together in a productive manner.

So, what really was Jenny and Don’s experience in the Global Mentorship Program? How did Don support Jenny through the challenges she faced? How did they find common ground? Why are these relationships critical right now and where are they now, months after the program ended?

Apply to CoalitionWILD's 2025 Global Mentorship Program: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScsOaJnAM3YerractksUmZh9-25TMoelp5IwNUSRSVBhjNg4Q/viewform

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