You know the way corals are formed? Like microorganisms piling up on each other—it’s kind of like a pileup of many conversations and experiences.”

This is how Tim Rios describes the most impactful gift he’s ever received and the most important gift he is focused on giving back.

For a man whose career has been dedicated to community development and philanthropy, the gifts that have most guided and affected his life have been “countless hours of time, countless examples of advice and mentorship and the gift of enlightening conversations.” He is more likely to meet with a young person than a mayor because the value of giving—guidance, mentorship and conversation—is so important to him, Rios said.

Rios, whose family came to the U.S. from Mexico in the early ‘80s, is one of six siblings and has grown and flourished largely due to the threads of guidance, support, and mentorship woven throughout his life. He recalled that his family could barely make ends meet when they arrived, and they benefited greatly from the generosity and guidance of others.
“I’m sure, if I thought hard enough, I could highlight five or six conversations…” he said, but he prefers to think of it as a body of conversations, of the time “people have spent with me as mentors… to show me something different than I thought was the truth.”

Read the full article about mentorship from Hispanics in Philanthropy