KRISTEN D'ELIA: THE STORY OF CLEAR DIRECTION MENTORING
A conversation with co-founder, Julia Derk, of the unique mentoring program
As President of Student Council in her second year, Julia Derk sought to allocate a portion of their $10,000 budget towards meaningful scientific outreach activities for underserved communities. Together with her graduate school best friend and colleague, Russell Ledet, they had an idea to create a program to provide long-term role models in hopes of retaining more talented young students from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM. They noticed that while there were many programs to expose students to the wonders of STEM, these programs lacked long-term mentors from whom kids could gain skills for STEM careers and who could support them through the onerous college application and financial aid process. They lamented that so many talented kids are lost, needing a “Clear Direction.”
Julia and Russel built the program to provide mentorship experiences for underrepresented students in STEM giving them a step ahead and opportunities to build their future on an even playing field. The program originated with the support of the Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences (now newly named Vilcek Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences) at NYU School of Medicine. More than six years later, Julia Derk, PhD, is now a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Colorado and continues her work to grow Clear Direction Mentoring with the goal of being a nation-wide non-profit. As a mentor for two years in the program at NYU, I had a good idea of the final, well-polished product. Last summer, I sat down to talk with co-founder Julia to learn more about how the organization came to be and what she sees for its future at institutions around the country.
THE BEGINNING
Julia and Russell designed the program for students of minority populations underrepresented in STEM as defined by the NIH (Hispanic or Latino, Black or African American, Pacific Islander, Native American or Alaskan Native populations). However, there was some flexibility in their admissions process over the years, in which they expanded the criteria to include compelling applications from brilliant and passionate students in extraordinary circumstances. For example, there were a few young Muslim women from Bangledesh and Pakistan who had never met a female scientist and reported complex cultural dynamics that made having conversations about STEM careers with their families challenging or impossible. The goal was to use mentorship to empower the students to overcome the hurdles in their lives enabling them to build a career in science, while also training them to be leaders within their own communities.
To find excellent high school students to apply to the program, Russell reached out to a church connection to advertise to the NYC school board. Recruiting began with cold emailing and calling science teachers and principals, visiting schools, and putting the word out in other outreach program newsletters. It also required difficult conversations with parents that had never heard of a program like this before. In order to recruit mentors, the pair began emailing fellow scientists in the PhD and MD/PhD training programs, holding office hours to answer questions, and asking for their close friends and colleagues to step up to the challenge.
The final structure of Clear Direction took three years of trial and error to develop. Each high school student was matched with a single PhD or MD/PhD student or PostDoc. The mentor and fellow kept in touch by e-mail, text, phone calls, and meetings. Mentors took on a variety of roles. Some intensely tutored their fellows, some offered their fellows lab internships, and others just provided emotional support and inspirational talks as needed. While exposure to STEM careers and help with college applications were the core goals, mentors and fellows were also paired based on their indicated preferences and shared interests. My own fellow expressed a passion for neuroscience and wanted to work with a woman, which made me a good match. She astounded me over the years with her unparalleled humor, diligence in her studies, and big dreams. We built an amazing bond over many trips for bubble tea and personal statement editing sessions.
Apart from the one-on-one mentoring, there were monthly group activities, including five “academies.” These were workshops, each designed around science, technology, engineering, math, or biotech. At one science academy, students participated in a “CLUE”-like investigation in which they used genotyping to solve a murder mystery. For another, fellows visited Rockefeller University for a week to learn how to express GFP in E. coli and see it fluoresce. During the technology academies, students learned how to code or design apps. At the month-long biotech academy, students designed their own devices and business models for a competition where outside biotech panelists judged their ideas. Last year’s winners designed an air quality detection bracelet for families who have children with respiratory issues. For other academies, fellows attended career panel discussions or visited companies such as Thrive Global, Bank of America, Spotify, and Google.
In addition to participating in academies, students also had an annual visit to watch an open-heart surgery and, last year, had the opportunity to dissect dogfish sharks. Beyond STEM-related activities, fun events were incorporated throughout the program, such as soccer in Central Park, a visit to VR world, a trip to the Intrepid, and board game days. At each event, regardless of the purpose, conversations would ensue about social justice, family and professional relationships, and the stress of being a high-achieving student.
The beginning and the end of the year were capped by two banquets for fellows and their families. Each event had a theme, keynote speakers, and plenty of food. The inaugural banquet set the tone and expectations for the year. At the closing festivities, students gave speeches about what they learned. Julia reminisced about what the students said at last year’s end-of-the-year banquet.
“They expressed a desire to build something bigger than themselves, to resist mediocrity, and that they know they are change makers that can actually impact the world. And they believe that they could because they saw us impacting their world.”
THE INCOMPARABLE SUPPORT
Academic mentorship to ensure that students were on the right path to STEM careers was a main goal of the program. With no GPA cut off, students were accepted from many different levels. A few were at risk of failing out because they were at underprivileged high schools, and often felt the system did not care about them. Sometimes, Clear Direction mentors had to have some stern talks and give tough love to make sure fellows were on track to getting As and Bs.
Clear Direction often provided mentorship beyond academics. Some fellows had financial issues and could not afford a metro card, college application fees, or even proper meals because of their family’s lack of resources. Also, changes in immigration policy were difficult for many students. Whereas all the students were documented, some of their parents were not, creating concerns during FAFSA applications. Other students had personal tragedies when parents or siblings took their own lives, were deployed, or were rejected for coming out as gay and/or trans. Many times, it was up to the mentors to make sure the students were okay, to ask tough questions, and find a way to give them holistic support without being overbearing.
The holistic method of Clear Direction was to care for the whole person, not just as an academic, but as a human, and all the baggage that comes with it. This approach led to fantastic outcomes. Every student in the program got into a four year college and received a scholarship. They continue to thrive at schools from Rutgers to Hopkins to Harvard. My own fellow is now attending Brandeis on a full scholarship and has started a new tutoring program called UniVirtual where she and her classmates provide free tutoring to underrepresented minority high school students and kids from impoverished backgrounds. On top of their successful educational experience, students created bonds and relationships with fellows and mentors that will last a lifetime. The sense of community at the events allowed students to open up in ways that show that they truly felt supported.
Julia says this reflects how the fellows saw the mentors interacting with each other. “A lot of us are friends and the community here is so strong. We can model positive healthy relationships. Russell and I are so different on the surface. He is from southern Louisiana, and I from rural Colorado. He is a navy vet, and I have never done military service. He took the GI bill and majored in biochemistry. I was a swimmer and majored in neuroscience. He is a large Black father, and I am a medium sized single white woman. But we share conviction about what is just. We are outspoken and willing to fight for whatever we believe in. And we loved and respected each other; we believed in each other’s dreams.” This love and respect reverberated throughout mentor relationships and, eventually, fellow relationships as well.
“The care is real. That’s the crux of it. We aren’t doing this for our resumes. We don’t get paid. We wanted to give these kids something that we didn’t have when growing up. We see ourselves in these children. We see our story in their lives. We want it to be easier for them. We want it to be a journey where they don’t feel so alone. That’s what we feel in these PhD and MD programs. We feel isolated. We all feel fear and imposter syndrome. If we can start nipping that in the bud at 16, 17, they can feel more at home in this kind of system.”
THE FUTURE
Clear Direction Mentoring’s future was unclear. When I first interviewed Julia, she and Russel were both graduating and moving onto their next steps away from NYC. Still, Julia spoke of Clear Direction in the future tense and was sure it would carry on in one form or another.
“It’s not ending, to be honest... I still have relationships with fellows and mentors. We are a trademarked company and it belongs to all of us, every single person who has been involved. And legally, it still belongs to Russel and I. Clear Direction is a specific thing,” Julia admits, “but mentorship of talented and underserved communities is an idea and it doesn’t belong to anyone. It is all of our duty to make STEM better.”
Now, just one year after this interview took place, I am happy to say that Clear Direction is already beginning to forge ahead both at NYU and in Colorado. Julia, Sudarshan Pinglay, Lou Barboza, and Oriana Perez are currently working on the new vision for NYU’s chapter and the group has done some successful virtual pilot work in the last few months in Aurora. Julia received approval from the IRB at University of Colorado, Denver to study the impact of Clear Direction Mentoring, which they hope to publish sometime in the next year.
Clear Direction Mentoring has become an official LLC in Colorado. After receiving a generous donation from an angel investor and consulting with a variety of non-profit accountants and lawyers, Clear Direction Mentoring is in the process of becoming a Non-Profit in which “Chapters” will exist at multiple institutions such as NYU School of Medicine and CU-Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus. They’ve also created national partnerships with Pace University, Pivot Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratories, and beyond for the next year. They are also working on ways to extend the mentorship through college, including three college interns, mentorship "families" where previous fellows take on a co-mentorship role, and more. They even sell some pretty popular merch. While many former mentors will be coming back in leadership roles, both groups are looking for new mentors and people who would like to get involved in Clear Direction’s next iteration.
I could not have anticipated the way the program would open my eyes to the struggles that students have to face and, more importantly, can overcome with the right mentorship. Mentoring is a two-way street; I may have helped my fellow with her internship and scholarship applications, but her energy reminded me of why I love science on the days my experiments weren’t working. Her passion for her hobbies and life in general was inspiring. Mentors and fellows alike would speak to the many ways that Clear Direction impacted their own lives. I cannot wait to see what is next for this incredible program, its founders, its mentors, and its students.
As always, Julia put it best: “Over the course of five years, and thousands of hours, it might have only been one hundred kids, but I believe wherever they go, the world will be better for it.”
Kristen D’Elia is a neuroscience doctoral student in the laboratory of David Schoppik, PhD, and the laboratory of Jeremy Dasen, PhD, at NYU Langone Neuroscience Institute. You can read some of Kristen’s science published in Cell here.