A PoolPort Ellery · public

Midspan Mentors

5 people who were the first in their families to go to college, now working. A coordinator met each of them before listing them, and each said yes. Anyone can read this Pool. Nobody writes to anyone in it until a coordinator has asked both people, and both have said yes.

The charter5 listed

People who were the first in their families to go to college, now working, who would like to meet one Ellery Coast student at a time. A coordinator meets every mentor before listing them. Mentors are public so students can see who is out there; nobody writes to anyone until a coordinator has asked both people and both have said yes. Everyone here is 18 or older.

Coordinators: Desmond Oyelaran Signed in with OAuth
Josefina “Fina” Arriaga (primary) Signed in with OAuth
Visibility: public. In our discovery file; anyone may read it §3.2
Consent: vouching-required. A coordinator meets each mentor and vouches first; each still says yes or no, and can leave in a minute §5.4
Messages: Every mentor: any verified sender, and no cold messages §7.2
Block lists: The Kindling public list and the Circular consortium list §7.3
Adults only: Everyone here is 18 or older
Status: active · opened 20 August 2026 · updated 24 September 2026
The file: pools/midspan-mentors.json

How the Pool is keptrules

A coordinator meets every mentor, and the college’s volunteer agreement is signed, before anyone is listed.
A vouch is local to this Pool. It does not follow anyone into another Pool, ours or anyone else’s.
Nobody here has an auto-accept rule. Every listing was a decision.
People are shown in the order they said yes, never by a score. There are no stars, no ratings and no “top mentors”.
Mentoring is unpaid, and nobody pays to be introduced.

Listed

5 people, in the order they said yes

Each card is what the person wrote on their own page, parsed when they said yes, with their verification level beside the name. Priya and Wes keep a separate page for mentoring, and this Pool lists that one. Photos, if anyone has them, stay on their own pages §2.5.

1 Said yes 24 August

Hieu Tran

Vouched for by the curator

hieu-tran.example · he/him

Diesel mechanic for the county road department. Diesel technology at Ellery Coast, then two years as an apprentice. First in my family to finish anything past high school. I did not ask my instructors for help, and I should have.

An Ellery Coast graduate, who came to Midspan directly.

Met by Desmond, and vouched for on 24 August. The vouch counts in this Pool only.

Messages: any verified sender, and no first message until both have said yes.

2 Said yes 26 August

Wes Adeyemi

Vouched for by the curator

wes-mixes.example/mentoring · he/him

Front-of-house sound at the Ferry Room. First in my family past high school: the audio technology certificate at Ellery Coast. Ask me about certificates, apprenticeships, and asking an instructor for help before you are behind.

An Ellery Coast graduate, who came to Midspan directly.

Met by Fina, and vouched for on 26 August. The vouch counts in this Pool only.

Messages: any verified sender, and no first message until both have said yes.

3 Said yes 1 September

Lorena Castañeda

Vouched for by the curator

lorena-castaneda.carrd.example · she/her

Bookkeeper for the harbor co-op. First in my family to go to college: accounting at Cape Tarrow, a transfer degree, and a bachelor’s finished online at thirty-four. I can read a financial aid letter with you line by line.

Also on Cape Tarrow’s list, where Lorena said yes on 12 April 2025. Two Pools, one page, two yeses.

Met by Fina, and vouched for on 1 September. The vouch counts in this Pool only.

Messages: any verified sender, and no first message until both have said yes.

4 Said yes 2 September

Priya Raman

Vouched for by the curator

docs.example/d/priya-raman-mentoring · she/her

Nurse on night shifts at the hospital in Port Ellery. First in my family to go to college: prerequisites at Cape Tarrow College while I worked as an aide, then nursing school. Happy to talk about prerequisites, clinical placements, and studying around a job.

Also on Cape Tarrow’s list, where Priya said yes on 10 April 2025. Two Pools, one page, two yeses.

Met by Fina, and vouched for on 2 September. The vouch counts in this Pool only.

Messages: any verified sender, and no first message until both have said yes.

5 Said yes 3 September

Maribel Soto

Vouched for by the curator

maribel-soto.notion.example · she/her

Fourth-grade teacher. Started at Cape Tarrow College at nineteen while working at the cannery, transferred, and came home to teach. Will talk about transfer, student teaching, and explaining to your family what you do all day.

Also on Cape Tarrow’s list, where Maribel said yes on 2 May 2025. Two Pools, one page, two yeses.

Met by Fina, and vouched for on 3 September. The vouch counts in this Pool only.

Messages: any verified sender, and no first message until both have said yes.

Ask the Pool

A plain question, answered from the file

Only people who said yes are in this Pool’s file, so only they can come up §5.1. Answers appear in the order people said yes.

Lorena CastañedaVouched for by the curator
Bookkeeper for the harbor co-op. First in my family to go to college: accounting at Cape Tarrow, a transfer degree, and a bachelor’s finished online at thirty-four. I can read a financial aid letter with you line by line.
Maribel SotoVouched for by the curator
Fourth-grade teacher. Started at Cape Tarrow College at nineteen while working at the cannery, transferred, and came home to teach. Will talk about transfer, student teaching, and explaining to your family what you do all day.

The box answers; it does not introduce. Every mentor keeps no_cold_messages on, so to meet someone here, tell Fina or Desmond, and they ask. Nothing was sent. This is an example, answered in this page from the manifest.

Also readableNot ours

Two more, on Cape Tarrow’s list

These cards come from Cape Tarrow First-Gen Alumni, a public Pool we read and do not keep. They have not said yes to our list. To propose either of them, Fina would first invite them into Midspan Mentors, and they would decide. Until then, their own rules say nobody writes first.

Cormac DoyleEmail verified
Forestry technician with the state. First in my family to go to college; I went back at twenty-six. Good on field jobs, summer crews, and what to do when the first semester goes badly.
Abebe GirmaSigned in with OAuth
Respiratory therapist. Came to the coast for work on a fishing boat, took one night class at Cape Tarrow, then another. First in my family to go to college. Ask me about the science prerequisites, and about being older than your classmates.

From https://alumni.capetarrow.example/pools/first-gen-alumni.json, kept by Bertrand Lomax. How we opened full.

Who can write to whom

Who can write to Priya, checked

Each row is checked in this page with Kindling’s rules, against Priya’s own preferences on her mentoring page and this Pool’s two block lists, the way a compliant client would §7.

Who writes	Result	Rule	Why
bulk-intros@relay.example	Blocked	Shared block list §7.3	On the Circular consortium block list, which this Pool subscribes to (spam).
Someone who never verified an email address	Held back	Identity gating §7.1	Unverified senders are held back. Verify your email first.
Joaquín Salas, a Midspan student, before any proposal	Held back	No cold messages §7.2	No first message until both of you have said you would like to hear from each other.
Yesenia Robles, after Fina proposed them and both said yes	Delivered	All rules met §7	Allowed by their rules: email verified, and both said yes.

The last row is Fina’s introduction. Play it yourself.

A mentor’s own screen

Leaving is one action

This is Hieu’s own screen for the Pool: his card, the coordinators, and any proposal addressed to him, and one way out.

Leaving sends one withdrawal message, and the Pool must process it within sixty seconds §5.3. His page stays his. Any student he has already met stays introduced. What privacy a Pool has comes from its visibility, never from kindling_noindex, which means “do not include me in any Pool at all” §2.7.

Hieu’s screenMidspan

Midspan Mentors

Kept by Fina ArriagaSigned in with OAuth

You are listed here. A coordinator writes to you when a student has already said yes to meeting you. Nobody can write to you first.

Your card: Hieu TranVouched for by the curator