New York Tech Student, Mentor Win Partnership Award

Pictured from left: New York Tech student Eboni Odom and her mentor Cecilia Peña-Colon

On October 25, the Moxxie Mentoring Foundation, which has mentored more than 400 young women on Long Island since 2010, held its eighth annual luncheon to celebrate women’s leadership and professional mentoring. During the event, New York Institute of Technology student, Eboni Odom, and her mentor were honored with a Purple Pump Award for their dynamic partnership.

The Moxxie Foundation’s leaders have developed strategic partnerships with prominent Long Island companies, including major banks, law and accounting firms, non-profit foundations, and higher education organizations. The foundation uses generational mentoring to partner young women with a diverse group of established professional women who offer career guidance and industry knowledge to the mentees.

According to Laurie Hollister, associate director, Career Services, the president of the Moxxie Foundation contacted the university a few years ago to see if any of our female students wanted to participate in its mentoring program.

Hollister was happy that one of the students in her Foundations of Inquiry class took advantage of the program. The electrical and computer engineering major has had great success with her mentor Cecilia Peña-Colon, marketing manager at the law firm Cullen and Dykman LLP. The two admit they connected easily through a love of shopping, which quickly developed into a supportive mentoring relationship, now in its second year. 

As Odom accepted her award she told the group, “It is truly a blessing to be a part of this organization and to be surrounded by so many intelligent business women that support me and my endeavors. It can be challenging to be a young woman in the engineering field, however this program is designed to support and empower me.”

Peña-Colon observed, “The most rewarding part of this experience is that I have actually learned so much from Eboni without her even knowing it!”