Paige West is indebted to her anthropology mentors Dr. Dorothy L. Hodgson and Dr. Bonnie J. McCay, to the scholarship of Pacific Studies scholar Dr. Teresia K. Teaiwa, and to her students for her approach to teaching and mentoring. Following Dr. Hodgson and Dr. McCay, Dr. West approaches mentoring graduate students with an ethic of kindness that is wrapped into a clear vision of how students can best follow the scholarly paths that they desire. Following Dr. Teaiwa, she attempts to create classroom spaces that do not replicate the colonial and racist history of the academy. She does this through creating a shared space of co-production and co-teaching which she facilitates throughout the semester. Learning from her students over the past twenty years, she has realized that the best teaching and mentoring is flexible and open to radical reconsideration and change as scholarly practice becomes more capacious and inclusive.