Saturday Academy Sowing Good Deeds for 41 years.
By Evan Finch
I had the privilege of speaking with Charlie Meshul, a dedicated and passionate mentor for the Apprenticeships in Science and Engineering (ASE) program at Saturday Academy. ASE, a unique program within Saturday Academy, connects high school students with pre-professional internships in and around Portland, OR. Mentors serve as the cornerstone of ASE, guiding interns through 8-weeks of hand-on projects, contributing meaningfully to the mentors’ own work. From positions in tech to environmental science and documentary filmmaking, ASE provides opportunities for highschoolers to explore their interests and passions.
Enjoy a glimpse into Charlie and I’s conversation.
Can you provide me with a brief introduction of yourself?
My name is Charlie Meshul. I've been with Saturday Academy now for ten years. I have a Ph.D. in general neuroscience. My interest is Parkinson's disease, I've had that interest for the last couple of decades. We use animal models of Parkinson's disease to look at potential treatments and their efficacy.
I've been at the Portland Veterans Hospital for almost 40 years now, where I’ve mentored students since 1989. So, I've been doing this for many, many years now.
I got involved with Saturday Academy about ten years ago. I happened to know the former executive director of Saturday Academy, Jeri Janowsky. My wife and I were having dinner with her and I mentioned, offhand, something about mentoring and she says, “By the way, how about mentoring with Saturday Academy?”
And I have to be honest, I had never heard of Saturday Academy. It started with one student and then the next year I had two students and almost every year since I've had two students interning in my lab. It’s been a wonderful experience.
What keeps you coming back to the ASE program every year and taking on new interns?
The reason I continue to mentor is that I really do enjoy the students. I've had graduate students in the past and they've been wonderful. I've had research assistants who have gone on to Ph.D. programs, but with Saturday Academy it’s different.
I think what I've realized is that it's not my science that's really going to make me who I am.
It's the mentoring that I'm going to be known for. I've enjoyed the science that I've done, but that's going to be long forgotten if it already hasn't been. It’s the mentoring that I really, really enjoy. I’m taking these students to the next level.
I mean, they’ve taken science classes in school, but it's very basic stuff. I think I could really take them above that. In fact, during the internship I give them lectures as if I was talking to graduate students or medical students.
I really raise the bar for them in terms of their knowledge about how the brain works, and it's been incredibly rewarding.
That’s what keeps me coming back year after year.
You mentioned taking these high school students to the next level. They’re keeping pace with college level science. Can you tell me the kinds of projects these ASE interns have worked on with you?
Good question. I give them a project related to some aspect of Parkinson's disease that we've been working on in our lab. Since ASE is an eight-week program, and these are such big projects, I divide them up into smaller segments.
And so I have the students work on one small part of a much larger project. What’s important to me is that they are all working on something different.
And this is because when I was a graduate student, I was working on the project of my advisor, which ended up not working out. So I approached him and I said, “George, I need something that's going to work.” He says, “what would you like to do?”
I told him what I had in mind, he said yes! He gave me ownership of the project which was very important to me. So that's what I do with my interns. There’s no overlap and they really have ownership of their project.
Ownership is a critical piece to giving them the ability to really advance in the lab.
How does it make you feel as the mentor watching them take ownership in what they are doing and make connections in the lab themselves?
When we got out of COVID, two summers ago, I had two brilliant high school students as interns. And at first, I thought, what can I teach them? I mean, they're taking all the advanced placement classes at their school.
But one of them said to me at the end of the internship, she never thought she was capable of being successful in this field, the straight-A student said this to me!
She said that the summer proved to her that she really does belong in science. I mean, I'm amazed that even high school students have this doubt, this imposter syndrome.
And by the end of the summer, she realized that she really could do it. And I've gotten this response from interns several times.
Do you see your role as a mentor to primarily empower your mentees?
Yes. The fact is, they really can do it. And all they need is to learn to do the technical stuff, which they learn within two or three weeks.
The real challenge is the interpretation of the data. And that's where I start to challenge them. “How would you interpret that? What does it mean?”
The fact is, they're doing graduate level work and they're only high school students. They already show that:
Number one: they can do the work.
Number two: they can analyze the data and put together a 12-minute presentation for the end of year Symposium.
What emotions do you feel as you witness these developments and connections taking shape?
It makes me feel that I'm at the right place at the right time. And I'm doing something that’s going to make a difference in their lives. Something that will help them in college or in somebody else’s lab, and beyond.
How would you describe the impact you've seen ASE have on the community?
Giving students the opportunity to work in a real lab or to work in the industry is the spine of ASE.
And hopefully they gain the confidence that they can do it. You know, it's unfortunate that there aren't more mentors that will accept these students.
Do your interns stay in touch after the internship is over?
Yeah, some of them stay in contact with each other. Most of them don't, they go off to college and they lose contact with each other. But I've stayed in contact with about half of the interns I've mentored.
I host a holiday breakfast every year for anybody who's in town. I invite all my Saturday Academy alumni and other students I’ve mentored.
About half the people who come now are Saturday Academy alumni.
I'm actually still in contact with an ASE intern from my second year as a mentor. She's now a nurse at OHSU. It's wonderful to see how they're all developing in their careers.
What tips would you share with someone who's applying to the ASE program for the first time?
Well, if you’re interested in STEM, this is a wonderful opportunity to get involved.
Start applying between your sophomore and junior years. I've had several sophomores work in my lab. In fact, last summer there was a sophomore from Lincoln High School who worked in my lab.
And the other thing I can highly advise is when you’re writing the personal statement, be very specific about your experiences and why this lab would be a good fit.
I look for personal statements from folks who have done their homework in terms of what I do beyond the lab, and they're just not repeating what I do in the lab. They've looked me up, for example, or they have a family experience with some sort of neurodegenerative disease, whether it's Parkinson's, Alzheimer's or other neurodegenerative diseases.
I think the problem with most of the personal statements I read is they're very general and they don't specifically address what I do in the lab or why this lab would be a good fit.
If a student said to you, why should I choose Saturday Academy’s ASE program over some other internship program, what would you tell them?
What I'm very impressed about is that the students put together a presentation at the end of the program for the ‘Summer Symposium.’ Again, it doesn't matter if you have positive or negative data, data is data. They have to put together a cohesive presentation, regardless of the results, which is unique, I think, for high school students to do.
I've been with Saturday Academy for ten years now and it’s been wonderful. I highly recommend students who are interested in science to apply to the ASE program.
Is there anything else you'd like to add that you haven’t gotten the chance to say yet?
I tell my students that what I'm doing now is plan C.
Plan A and plan B didn't work out. I've been at the VA for almost 40 years now. I want to stress that it can work out. And I just think what Saturday Academy offers for young students is just so incredible.
With ASE specifically, the students get to gather during the middle of the internship for ‘Midsummer Conference’ and they talk about going to college. They ask each other questions like ‘How are you going to finance college?’ These are conversations that, you know, it's rare for high school students to get the chance to hear and talk about this kind of stuff.
And especially at the end of the summer with the ‘Symposium’, not only having to put together a presentation, but watching other interns present their projects. It's remarkable. This is stuff that you do in graduate school. And the fact is, they are getting this experience now!
Thank you so much Charlie, it has truly been a pleasure talking to you.
A pleasure here.
This week, we are celebrating #GoodDeedsDay from Sunday, April 14, to Sunday, April 21. We invite you to pay it forward in honor of the inspiring DOERS of Saturday Academy, like Charlie Meshul.
Donate from TODAY-Sunday, April 21 and celebrate the good deeds we have sown: bit.ly/GoodDeedsDay24