As part of its partnership with Stand4Good, the Vasco Vieira de Almeida Foundation has reinforced its commitment to the association's mentoring programme (Mentor4Good) for the fifth consecutive year.

Based on an intervention plan structured around seven pillars – Learn, Boost, Mentor, Work, Talk, Act and Do it  – Stand4Good is dedicated to supporting university students in situations of proven economic need, accompanying them throughout their academic career and during the first year after completing higher education. This integrated approach seeks to equip students with the key skills needed to enhance their employability, while helping to break the cycle of poverty and social exclusion.

For the 2024/25 academic year, Miguel Gonzalez Amado, Managing Associate at VdA, enthusiastically accepted the challenge of joining the Mentor4Good programme as a mentor to Margarida, a final-year law student at the University of Porto.

“My experience as Margarida's mentor was undoubtedly a huge learning experience for me. In fact, much more than teaching or helping someone – and at the risk of sounding cliché – this experience enriches those who go through it as mentors, both professionally and personally.

It is hugely satisfying to feel that, with small gestures and investing a small amount of our time, we can truly support someone who is at a stage in their life and in a situation where our help can be decisive and where we can be catalysts for important decisions or actions. But there is also the satisfaction of seeing what we learn from this experience, in terms of adaptability and adjusting ourselves to the needs of others, in exactly the way they need us and not in the way we think they need us.

Being a mentor at Stand4Good was undoubtedly a fantastic experience that I would recommend to any lawyer at VdA.”     - Miguel Gonzalez Amado