What inspired My Mentor Lab?
How ‘Poor Economics’ and an improvised social media randomized trial fertilised the road to My Mentor Lab
By the founder - Ysa Vieira
Coming from immigrant parents who used to move back and forth between Europe (Portugal) and Latin America (Venezuela) gave me a double-sided view of how different two educational systems could look, with contrasting views of what people like to call developed and developing countries.
All who personally know me, know that I have a background in law, so the first time I held in my hands an economics book, it was this little whitish paperback with bold big red letters of a title that read: "Poor Economics: The Surprising Truth about Life on Less Than $1 a Day". I do not want to write a big, long review of the book here, but it is enough to say that Professors Banerjee and Duflo profoundly reshaped my understanding of poverty and how it all links back to education.
They beautifully explained in the simplest words the mechanics behind the poverty traps, and how the smallest interventions can lift people out of them. It helped me realise that I do not need to be a billionaire philanthropist to create change or fight poverty, for change can start with the simplest actions, sometimes as simple as sharing information with others, and the best part: at the cost of zero for the sharer!
But before that, six years ago, in 2018, while working at the Department of Social Assistance to Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers at a law firm in Venezuela (my birth country) I unknowingly ran what would later be my first "improvised randomised trial".
Teaching has always been one of my passions, so I started a small project helping low-income students secure scholarships to take introductory online courses in law, which I designed with the help of professors and lawyers from different parts of the world that I was able to network with. Using social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram, I created what I called ‘academic giveaways’ to encourage participation and advertised these posts on social media targeting poor areas in Latin America.
Being always my background in law, and without ever knowing or reading anything about economics or randomised trials at the time, I realised that I had the power to create small changes, not just in my community but even internationally leveraging the power of technology to reach a wider audience of low-income students. My improvised experiment revealed some interesting findings that surprised me, and also helped me debunk some myths about poverty:
- Poor students want to study, intuitively believing education is their ticket out of poverty.
- If given the financial means, they are willing to pay for education.
- Role models played a crucial part in keeping them motivated.
- By simply sharing information with them about potential scholarships or pathways to study high-paying careers, their mindset shifted from finding a job for immediate survival to pursuing education as an investment in their future.
- But they needed constant guidance and support; without it, many would drop out.
Although my experiment was far from perfect and certainly lacked the most basic econometrics techniques, it sparked a passion for giving away education and creating change.
Lastly, I would like to share a more personal story, it is connected at the very core of this project, so not to mention it makes me feel that I am discarding an essential part of its roots, and also, omitting what has become a personal strong motivation for me.
I’m a single parent to a child with profound disabilities (non-verbal autistic). I understand that as a parent, we (unfortunately) do not come prepared with a manual on how to handle these challenges. For autism, things get a bit more complicated, every day is different, and what worked yesterday won’t (usually) work tomorrow. It is mostly a process of trial and error, with the difference that learning from errors does not guarantee that you’ll be able to solve the same challenge tomorrow, as I said, every day is different, and the lack of verbal communication does not make it any easier. Topping that with commitments of studying a full-time law degree, plus taking on additional modules/courses, a job, research activities, conferences, etc it all looks like a recipe for chaos! But hey! that’s not what’s happening, and yes! I won’t lie, challenges are there and always be, but my son has taught me how to become a problem solver, how to address things with (extreme) patience, and as a plus, gave me some sort of multitasking superpowers! which I did not possess before him. All of this, while constantly fuelling my motivation, my son has also deeply shaped my perspectives about tackling inequality and discrimination in education settings.
So, if I had to summarise My Mentor Lab in three thoughts, I would think of Poor Economics, my improvised experiment, and my little angel.
Here
is a selfie of us at the Natural Museum (a rare occurrence, he hates pictures!)
“…an investment in knowledge pays the best interest…”
― Benjamin
Franklin
