The Science of Mentorship

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to the Science of Mentorship. There's a misconception that mentoring always travels from mentor to mentee. The truth is effective mentoring relationships are mutually beneficial for all partners. Dr. Jedidah Isler found this mutual support early in her STEM journey. She studied at historically black universities, Norfolk State and Fisk where peers and faculty affirmed her dreams to become an astrophysicist, and she affirmed and supported their dreams in return.
When Jedidah moved from these HBCUs to Yale, an exclusive and predominantly white institution, she found an environment that wasn't as supportive. That's when she recognized that mentorships take on different forms, and not every mentoring relationship offers the same kind of support. Those lessons helped her become the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in astrophysics from Yale. Today, mentoring is a core component of Dr. Isler's role as assistant professor of astrophysics at Dartmouth College, where she studies hyperactive, super massive black holes. Dr. Jedidah Isler is an award-winning scholar and speaker who works at the intersections of science and social justice. She's the creator and host of VanguardSTEM, an online platform and a monthly series focused on women and non-binary people of color in STEM. We all sit under the same night sky. We see it every day, but what we often take for granted had a different effect on a young Jedidah Isler.
Jedidah Isler (01:51):
I think the night sky is amazing. I think it's amazing and beautiful, and I had the privilege as a kid to actually be able to see it, which I recognized to be a privilege, and I just was captivated by it. I thought it was beautiful, and I thought ... I was always so blown away by the fact that like generations and civilizations of ancestors had also seen that same sky, and it just always brought me so much joy. Then, in, I think it was like junior high or high school, when I heard about black holes, I was like, oh, I mean, there is nothing cooler in the universe. That's what I want to know more about.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
As her wonder turned into curiosity and then ambition, she found the encouragement she needed to start on her path at a very young age.
Jedidah Isler (02:39):
Yeah. My first mentor and the first and most real encouragement I got to pursue astrophysics or at least to pursue my hope to pursue astrophysics was from my mother. She is the original mentor for me. I remember, the story goes that I was at a library nearby my house. I found this book. It talked about careers in science, and I found the word astrophysics, and I thought it was the coolest word. Then, when I read what it was, I was like, "Oh, my God. This is what I want to do. This is so cool."
I came home, and I told my mom. I was like, "Mom, I want to be an astrophysicist," and she just was like, "All right, let's do it. Where are we going? How do we do this?" It wasn't until I was, I think actually after I got my bachelor's degree that we were laughing together one time, and she was like, "Yeah, no. I didn't quite know what that meant or how to get there when you said it, but I was going to support you no matter what."
Speaker 1 (03:30):
With her mom's support, Jedidah chose a path that led her to a community where people would affirm and encourage her dreams.
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Jedidah Isler (03:37):
I 100% rolled up on the campus of Norfolk State, knowing that I wanted to be an astrophysicist. I couldn't ... Norfolk State didn't, at the time, have an astronomy degree, so the closest I could get was physics, which I felt like was close enough because I mean, it's in the word, astrophysics, so it couldn't be too far off.
Norfolk State is an exceptional place. As they say, I stand for HBCUs. I really enjoy historically black colleges and universities for their role in cultivating the next generation of black students. So, I got lots of encouragement on campus. It wasn't even an issue. I said I wanted to be an astrophysicist. They said, "You got to learn physics," and then they taught me physics. So, I felt very supported there in ways that like reaffirmed and, again, underscored this notion that I could do this work.
Then, I went to Fisk as part of the Fisk-Vanderbilt Master's-to-PhD Bridge Program. I was a Fisk student. I took classes at Vanderbilt as well, and so I got my master's at Fisk. Then, when it was time for me to transition, I was accepted to Yale.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Jedidah's mentors at Norfolk State pushed her to recognize her own abilities in science, but that environment isn't the same everywhere.
Jedidah Isler (04:57):
It was quite an abrupt transition, right? I had gone from these smallish HBCUs who focused on students and their success to an elite Ivy League institution with a very different perception of what they viewed as valuable in their students, and that was hard. It was hard. There's no way around it. I had individual people there that really supported me, without whom I couldn't have made it, but that was an incredibly challenging time for me. I did learn some astrophysics though, so ultimately, it got me to my goal.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Earning a doctorate in astrophysics is not easy, but on top of the educational challenges, Jedidah discovered there was work associated simply with being a marginalized student.
Jedidah Isler (05:50):
I study astrophysics. I love it, but at the same time, I recognized that the longer I went in my journey, the less diverse the field was, and so, yeah, it's important for me to say that I am a double HBCU alumna, that I went to Norfolk State, that I went to Fisk, and that those institutions taught me all of the skills I needed not just in the actual technical field but in terms of like my own development such that I could make it through. So, yeah, HBCUs are very certainly exemplars of what exceptional mentoring looks like for sure.
Being black at a predominantly white institution more broadly is a learning experience in unto itself. It is a degree in unto itself. It is its own school of hard knocks in many ways, and I think we overlook that many times, the sort of dual curriculum that black students and that other marginalized students are going through when they're in these spaces that were very literally not constructed for them, and we can never forget that. There's a lot to be said about my mentoring journey, given what my academic pathway look like.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
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Studying in a significantly less diverse place was jarring. While nothing could change this reality, Jedidah did find peers to provide the support she needed.
Jedidah Isler (07:08):
There were folks in other departments, students in other departments, graduate students in other departments that really brought me in a community, made me feel part of the whole and that I deserved to be there.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
That's when she began to understand how different mentors could help her expand her idea of what was possible.
Jedidah Isler (07:25):
When I think about mentoring, I think about like all the lessons I've learned from folks who have faced what seemed like insurmountable odds and how learning from them, even if they're not in my direct life, is a form of mentoring because it gives me that ability to dream again that different kind of future. So, I think true mentoring does allow for the creation of new futures and also like an expansion of what is possible.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Dr. Isler knew expanded possibilities for students don't happen without mentorship that factors in their diverse identities, cultures, and backgrounds.
Jedidah Isler (08:07):
The data support the fact that like having groups that are heterogeneous is just good for everybody. To be clear, that doesn't mean we should bring in marginalized people to enrich the experiences of, for example, white people. That's not what I'm saying, but what I am saying is that like having varying experiences and exposure and perspectives and cultures, that is just better. It's not even a moral thing. It's just like quantitatively better, so, yeah, bringing in the voices of communities of color, LGBTQ communities, folks with disabilities, folks who are neuro atypical. The list goes on. Knowledge is for everyone, and everyone possesses some knowledge.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
While mentors may provide unique support, mentors and mentees each have value to bring to the table.
Jedidah Isler (09:02):
If you want a different thing than has been seen around you, then that person may be able to advise you through your degree and answer your technical questions about completing your hypothesis and your experiment, but they may not be able to help you co-construct your future. Knowing how to mentor, certainly knowing how to mentor in a way that is liberatory and not oppressive is a skill as is knowing if you're receiving the right kind of mentorship as a mentee or a mentor, and in fact, I've had relationships with folks where some ... like in the same conversation, I am the mentee and mentor. It's a mutual exchange of information.
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To say in the mentee role, "No, this isn't serving me, or this does not feel right, or I am not getting what I need," is part of building the skill for knowing what you need. I think you hone it over time to get to the place where even on the first breath, you're like, "Whop, that breath did not sound ... Nope. I'm going to need to pass on this particular conversation. This is not what I need," but yeah, it's all learned and constantly evolving, a dynamic process of this co-creation of this desired future that we're trying to get to.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Dr. Isler learned that there are many more kinds of support and mentorship, and that mentorship can take many different forms and fulfill many different needs.
Jedidah Isler (10:28):
I think the most freeing piece of information I got was very early on. I think it was at my first Ford Fellowship Conference, and I was talking to Professor Robbin Chapman, and she said, "You can't just have one mentor. You have to have basically a mentoring network. You have to have a set of folks that can help you do particular things based on what you're trying to do." She told me that. That was the first thing she told me, and the second thing I remember her telling me was that there was a difference between a mentor and an advisor, and a mentor and a champion, and a mentor and a sponsor, and that I would be well-served if I never confuse those things, right?
Those are two things that when I'm mentoring folks, I tell them the same, right, like no one person can be capital, The, capital M, Mentor, right? It just doesn't exist just because no one can be your sage. No one can tell you how to lay out your life because if we're being honest, none of us know what we're doing. We're all figuring it out as we go, if we're being honest. So, having this cluster of folks that you can ask different things of different people really makes it possible to get enough information to then make one's own decision.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
This changed how she looked at mentorship and the ways to construct great mentoring relationships.
Jedidah Isler (11:50):
I often like to think of mentoring, even if I'm not just thinking about peer mentoring, if I'm thinking about sort of like near peer or even far peer mentoring, I still think that there has to be almost a flatness in the hierarchy in order for folks to be able to be themselves and ask for what they need and set the boundaries they need around those relationships, which is why I brought up that point about the difference between a mentor or a champion or an advisor or a sponsor, right? You may not be able to tell your sponsor, "No, you're not about to do this." Right? You may not be able to tell a sponsor that, but you should be able to talk to your mentor in that way. You should be able to have that kind of relationship. When I think about mentorship in particular, I think about mutual, respectful and beneficial relationships that allow for the co-construction of a different future.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Mentoring relationships that encourage honesty and the openness to seek support from others throughout the STEM ecosystem. Dr. Isler strives to make this a reality by mentoring in a way that places value on the student's whole being.
Jedidah Isler (12:53):
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I actually try to help them become the person that they want to be, and hope that it's clear that their presence in my group or in any context in science is not predicated on, at least for me, their ability to produce because I feel like folks that are happy and healthy will produce. That's why they're there. They want to do the thing, so I try to find the humanity and maintain the sense of that humanity, and then the work will come.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
In her role as assistant professor of astrophysics at Dartmouth, Dr. Isler often takes on roles as both advisor and mentor. She recognizes these roles can be very different.
Jedidah Isler (13:37):
So, do I have a clear line between advising and mentoring? I think so. I think they know that when we're in the science context, the astrophysics context, I have pretty high standards, and I am committed to excellence because as a black woman in astrophysics, I know that excellence is required of me to even be rated mediocre if we're being Honest. So, I have pretty high standards, but that I'm going to do whatever I can to help them. Then, I try to make available the option for them to always switch into the mentoring context to say, "I just really need help figuring out how to do this or that or the other."
So, I would not call my mentoring activities a burden, but there is certainly research that supports this mentoring gap on the invisible labor that faculty of color have in mentoring while also basically in being black while on campus. I definitely feel that. For me though, it's never been negotiable that I was going to do my best to help folks that are alongside me and coming up behind me and even be whatever resource I can be to folks who've already walked the path.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Dr. Isler knows that her duty to mentor marginalized students is necessary for the next generation to have a future of more opportunities. While this work is essential, she dreams of a day when they would no longer be needed.
Jedidah Isler (15:04):
I will never give up mentoring. I'd give up the job before I gave up mentoring, right, because the job is just one job. There are many jobs to have, but the hope for a future where mentoring can just be about the construction of one's interests in, say STEM, for example, and not about how to withstand what can often be oppressive and racist, sexist, all kinds of ism cultures. If the work I do can help lead to that kind of freedom, then I can teach astrophysics anywhere, right?
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Dr. Jedidah Isler Doesn't just talk the talk. She's actively working to improve mentorship through VanguardSTEM, a program she founded to focus on women of color in STEM. This monthly series is changing the STEM ecosystem. You can learn more about the work of VanguardSTEM and the programs they support in the show notes of this episode. To learn more about the science of effective mentorship and for a guide to implementing best practices in your STEM environments, visit nas.edu/mentoring.
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