Taking my place in history for her

By Gianny Guzman

Meet the Pair

MENTEE GIANNY GUZMAN & MENTOR HERMOINE HOBY

Gianny’s Anecdote: In my first year as a mentee, I placed Hermione on this golden pedestal. I looked up to her as this beacon of hope, knowledge, and wisdom. Four years later, she is my mentor and friend, and remains this beacon of light in my life. I may have taken her down from that pedestal, but not because she let me down, but because she surpassed everything I ever thought of her. Her kindness and wisdom astonish me every day. I look to her for guidance, or even just for someone to have a conversation with. She is more than the pedestal I placed her on.

Hermoine’s Anecdote: Five years ago I met an effervescent thirteen-year-old who squealed upon meeting “a real Hermione.” I remain a “real Hermione” and Gianny Guzman remains a real Harry Potter fan—these things have stayed the same—but when I recall the moment we met, I feel a kind of vertigo of transformation. As in, how, in the space of just a few years, did that girl become this woman? Recently, she told me she wanted us to research political candidates together ahead of the 2020 election. My seventeen-year-old self was shamed! Would that I’d had such a level of civic engagement or been so comprehensively versed in feminist debate at that age! I marvel at the person Gianny has become. She is a woman of principle, compassion, conviction. She is ambitious, kind, funny, curious, a formidably well-informed citizen, a natural leader, a caring friend, and a writer of great talent. In short, she embodies everything I hope for in her generation.