I chose my topic because the world is on fire as of May 9th, 2025, and I, as a 17-year-old, am already worried about my job prospects. There is a lack of infrastructure to support people entering the workplace for the first time, especially for women. This is precisely why I focused my REDI Lab project on helping women enter the workforce through a mentorship program. Working with the director of the CA Alumni Board, I devised an outline for a mentorship program. By pairing CA graduates who have recently graduated college with older alumni in similar fields, there is guaranteed to be an automatic connection that will help the mentorship process. I spent my time interviewing many people to understand what makes up a good mentor-mentee relationship and what unique challenges women face in the workforce.
Going into REDI Lab, I had a good idea of exactly what I wanted to focus on for the mentor and mentee sessions. I already knew about emotional labor, statistics behind promotion rates, how gender biases impact women speaking up in meetings, and in what industries the glass ceiling is the most prevalent. I relied on my interviews to gain an understanding of the intricacies of different industries, exactly how these setbacks affect women, and what they wished they had done differently if they were doing the whole process over again. I got a wide variety of advice, from not overthinking things and giving up to understanding where safe spaces are and asking for help; everyone I talked to wished they were more confident in themselves and took the opportunities they were given as if they deserved them. The lessons that they have taught me I’m using for my project and the rest of my life.
As for my project after REDI Lab, my goal over the summer of 2025 is to launch a pilot program for this mentorship system. By the end of the 2024-2025 school year, I aim to have 3-4 pairs of alumni mentors and mentees and get them started on the mentoring process. By starting small, I will have greater troubleshooting capabilities and be able to fine-tune the initial pairing methodology and preparation, ensuring that both mentors and mentees have the best experience possible. If the summer is successful and mentors and mentees want to continue afterward, I will pitch a larger-scale operation to the Alumni Board in the fall. The upscale would likely include an actual pairing system to give people the best experience possible, spaces in Alumni emails and posts on the LinkedIn page to spread the program and attract more participants, and direct outreach to recent college graduates who will be the program’s target.
