When Challenges Arise, the National Mentoring Community Helps Students Stay in Physics

Navigating a physics degree can be difficult for any student, but the challenges can be even greater for students from minoritized or marginalized groups. To support these students, APS launched the National Mentoring Community (NMC) in 2014. Ten years and hundreds of student–mentor matches later, participants say the program is still making a difference.

“Mentors have influenced my path greatly,” says Italian Johnson, a physics major at Jackson State University. A first-generation college student, she credits a high school internship mentor for introducing her to physics and helping her transition to college. More recently, NMC mentors have helped her explore career options, attend conferences, and build a network. “Your network is your net worth,” she says. “Gaining those connections is helping me to get farther in life.”

The NMC is set up kind of like a dating app, says APS program manager Bri Hart. The mentors — physicists at any career level in any sector — complete a profile. Then, the mentees — undergraduate or graduate students in physics or related fields — browse the profiles and indicate who they’d like to connect with. If there’s a match, the pair decides when and how often to meet. Along the way, the NMC augments the experience with prompts, resources, and community-building events.

Through the NMC, Johnson matched with Jami Valentine Miller, a Ph.D. physicist at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and founder and CEO of African American Women in Physics (AAWP), Inc. In addition to their shared physics interests, Johnson was drawn to Valentine Miller’s experience as a Black woman in physics who also attended an HBCU.

“To find someone that looks like you and that understands your struggle — not even just your struggle but understands your background, it definitely helps,” Johnson says. About once a month, they meet virtually to discuss Johnson’s goals, career pathways, professional development opportunities, and anything else on her mind.

Valentine Miller believes in the power of mentoring, in part because of how mentors impacted her own life. “It gave me a lot of confidence to know that so many professionals believed in me and were interested in seeing me succeed,” she says. Valentine Miller participates in a variety of mentoring programs and especially appreciates the structure and guidance the NMC provides, along with a key benefit introduced in 2017 — emergency financial aid for mentees.

The NMC’s Bringing Emergency Aid to Mentees (BEAM) Fund offers quick financial assistance, typically $1,000–2,500, to mentees in an emergency. Made possible by a donation by Kenton and Amy Brown, the fund has helped mentees get home during emergencies, buy food, pay for car repairs, and meet other financial challenges that may have otherwise derailed their education or limited professional opportunities.

Unexpected school fees threatened to keep Jaylyn Umana, then a physics undergraduate, from registering for classes one semester, but the BEAM fund enabled him to continue his education uninterrupted. Later, when faced with the choice of buying groceries over winter break or paying graduate school application fees, the BEAM fund came through again.

Now a graduate student at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, Umana says that mentoring — especially by Jack Simonson, a physics professor at Farmingdale State College — profoundly impacted his life. “He was one of the few people that I think really, truly believed in me and my ambitions,” Umana says.

About a year after Simonson began mentoring Umana, they joined the NMC. “Because we are affiliated through the National Mentoring Community, we now have all the perks that come with it,” Umana says. That includes access to the BEAM fund, APS resources, and an official way to stay in touch, which they still use.

Umana came across a great mentor early in his physics pursuit, but many students aren’t so lucky. Unapproachable and busy professors may discourage students from seeking support, says Mario Borunda, a physics professor and dean at Oklahoma State University. “This is where the NMC plays a key role,” he says. Students can access a pool of dedicated mentors already committed to supporting students and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As a Hispanic physicist, Borunda knows how it feels to be in the minority. He’s been a long-time NMC mentor, working to ensure that students from marginalized identities and first-generation college students get the practical guidance and support they need. And if they’re interested in a path he hasn’t traveled — a career in industry, say — the NMC offers resources on those topics for him to share.

Borunda and Valentine Miller say that mentoring conversations often go deeper than which classes to take or how many graduate school applications to submit. Students want to know if it’s possible to have a family in graduate school, how to handle microaggressions, and whether they’re “good enough” to continue in the field.

That topic resonates with Johnson. “I always thought I was in a room because [the organizers] needed to meet a diversity quota,” she says. But Valentine Miller helped her change that view. “She definitely helped me understand that if I'm in the room, I'm meant to be there,” Johnson says.

The NMC is open to all undergraduates and graduate students in physics and related fields, although students who identify as Black or African American, Latino, or Indigenous receive priority. Mentor-mentee matches typically last for at least one academic year, although many last much longer, and participants can join anytime.

“The NMC plays a vital role in helping students to stay in physics,” says Valentine Miller. “It's a very valuable program not just for APS, but for all of physics.”