There is perhaps no better way to learn than through the help of
a mentor. Just ask attorney Sara Horatius, who has seen the benefit
of the mentor-mentee relationship from both sides through her
involvement in several Massachusetts Bar Association programs.
A 2013 Widener University School of Law graduate and former
AmeriCorps attorney, Horatius currently works as an adjunct
instructor at Roxbury Community College. She credits her upbringing
as the inspiration for her interest in a legal career, as well as
her passion to volunteer.
Growing up, she lived in an apartment in Mattapan with her
immigrant parents and her siblings. She remembers how her landlord
would never fix anything that was broken or help when her apartment
was infested with rodents. "I remember telling myself that I wanted
to become a lawyer so that I can help people, especially immigrants
[and others] who don't know the law or who are being abused by
someone, whether it's their landlord or the government," she
said.
Horatius is an extremely caring individual who loves to get
involved in programs that help others. She first got involved at
the MBA through the MBA's Practicing with Professionalism course
for newly-admitted attorneys. It was there where she encountered
Probate and Family Court Chief Justice Angela Ordoñez, who, during
her keynote to the class, mentioned the MBA's Tiered Community
Mentoring (TCM) program, which she founded. The program pairs high
school, college and law school students with attorneys. Horatius
got involved in the Tiered Community Mentoring program soon after,
and it's where she learned that "mentors are one of the keys to
success in life."
Serving as a mentor in the TCM program, Horatius has taken time
to help her law school mentees' study and understand topics within
law school that they found difficult. She shared that her favorite
memory from the MBA's TCM program was from her first year of
involvement, when she was able to help her law student mentee who
was having trouble understanding her civil procedure class. "We
studied together … and she said that was the greatest thing that
anyone has ever helped her with," Horatius recalled. "She actually
ended up doing well on the final."
Horatius found the MBA's Tiered Community Mentoring Program so
valuable that she was inspired to try and find a mentor for
herself. She found a perfect match while taking part in the MBA's
inaugural Leadership Academy in 2016-17. Horatius said she enjoyed
the program immensely, thanks in large part to her mentor,
past MBA President Valerie Yarashus, who took her to events and
connected her with other attorneys. "It was just really great to
have someone that I can relate to and we became really great
friends, as well," Horatius said.
She said her Leadership Academy experience changed her from
being a "bystander," to someone who now finds joy in taking on
leadership roles. "[It] spark[ed] that flame in me to want to find
these leadership roles, whether it's in my career, whether it's in
other organizations that I am a part of, or personal things in my
life."
Since graduating from the Leadership Academy, Horatius has
become involved with the MBA's 2017-18 Access to Justice Section
Council. She also credits the Leadership Academy experience with
helping her to create programs for her students at Roxbury
Community College, and to take the lead on multiple opportunities
within other organizations that she is part of.
It has also inspired her to get back into the practice of law by
getting on the MBA's Lawyer Referral Service list. Taking on the
responsibility of cases, she said, is just another way she can put
her leadership skills to use.
The MBA's Jason Scally contributed to this
story.