Hey everyone,
I just read a great blog: "To My Younger Self: Bridging the Mentorship Gap for Underrepresented Students" by Rachael Alfant.
Quick Summary:
- The blog talks about the challenges faced by minorities in STEM.
- There's a belief that diversity in STEM means lesser research quality.
- Rachael emphasizes the value of mentorship, especially the "To My Younger Self" program.
My Thoughts:
- I've felt those biases she mentioned. It's tough having to prove your worth all the time, as opposed to some other fields where you are just "cruising". Take Computer Science, where you must not just "make a code". It must be better, faster, more optimized, and use less space than the first few options that come to someone's mind, and must be competitive with everyone else's in your class/field.
- But, I was lucky. As I lived in Europe, Africa, and America, I had diverse teachers growing up, so my experience was a bit different, although I saw many classmates struggle with anxiety to meet those hard college requirements. I was lucky that I had people to mentor me and reach out to, but this is not always the case for most.
Discussion Points:
- Have mentorship programs helped you? Were these easily accessible or just via your university, job, etc.?
- Are schools doing enough to support all students? It is hard to believe that people from many different backgrounds will react to life the same way. Maybe having experienced leadership who suffered similar struggles to these underrepresented minorities would be great.
Let's chat about this. What do you think?
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Joaquin "Quino" Carretero Martinez
UC Davis
Sunnyvale CA
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