Mentorship Has Always Been Her Mission: Tereza Yerimyan

Long before Tereza Yerimyan joined Forté, she was building communities that opened doors for others.

As Director of Government Affairs at the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), Tereza leads federal policy initiatives and oversees a national legislative team from Washington, DC. Earlier in her career, she directed a Washington career development fellowship for young Armenian Americans. There she coached participants on resumes and interviews, and she revived an alumni network so fellows could keep learning from the people who came before them.

Mentorship was already central to how she works.

In June 2020, a Trending @Forté eNewsletter introduced Tereza to the Forté community. That September, she began her MBA at the Georgetown McDonough School of Business, building on a bachelor's degree in political science from UCLA. Both of her alma maters have been connected to Forté as Academic Members, so the community she had just joined also reached the campuses that shaped her.

What she found there was a network with real range. Tereza describes Forté as "an excellent networking source with women in various careers and stages, creating an opportunity to find mentors and become mentors."

That last phrase captures why the community fits her. 

After years of connecting emerging professionals with people further along, Tereza saw the same exchange at work in Forté. She can learn from women a few steps ahead and offer her own experience to women just starting out.

Tereza sees that exchange in her own conversations. "When I talk with women who are just starting out, I remember how much it meant to have someone a few steps ahead of me," she says. "Forté gives me a place to be that person and to find one for myself."

Six years after she first joined, her story shows what a network can do when its members give as readily as they receive.