Middle School Explorers
This program is best for curious middle school students who are just beginning to think about what subjects they might want to pursue in the future.
High School Seekers
Tailored for high school students still in the process of discovering their interests, this program provides targeted insights into potential project paths, helping them make informed choices about their college majors and beyond.
College Ambiguity
This program offers clear pathways for college students seeking direction before they declare a major. It helps them consider a wide range of options, foster innovative thinking and empower them to make confident choices.
Choose Topics
Select your three areas of interest - whether broad or specific
Get matched in less than a week
Prep with our list of 50 sample questions to ask in your sessions
Meet Mentors
Receive personalized 1-on-1 advice from 3 expert mentors from the world's best institutions
Engage in two-way conversations that are tailored to you
Reflect on Learnings
Get help synthesizing your learnings in a Reflection Session with a Polygence Educator
Define clear next steps towards more exploration
Session 1: Biology with Quan
MD Candidate at Stanford
Sample questions you could ask:
What is a day in the life of a cancer biologist like?
How did Quan realize she wanted to be a biologist?
What research is she doing? What questions is she thinking about?
What’s the hardest thing about her work?
Session 2: Engineering with Amin
PhD Candidate at Princeton University
Sample questions you could ask:
What kinds of decisions did Amin make to get into college?
What is his favorite thing about his research?
Are you able to establish a work/life balance in your field?
What steps did you take to earn your current position?
Session 3: Public Health with Kalifa
MD Candidate at University of Wisconsin
Sample questions you could ask:
How did Kalifa realize she wanted to specialize in public health?
What surprised her the most about her industry?
What was college like for Kalifa?
What resources should I look at to dive deeper?
Session 4: Reflection Session
with Polygence Educator
What you'll do:
Reflect on key learnings from the three conversations
Get help to synthesize learnings about oneself
Identify clear next steps to take to further explore career paths
Note: You don’t need to pick three different subjects. Some students pick just one, such as Biology, and then use Pathfinders to meet with three mentors who all specialize in different topics within the field of Biology.
The program allowed me to view my options. My parents have often told me what jobs are "hot", but that doesn't really provide context into what these jobs do, or what college life the people who go these paths are like. This program allowed me to mitigate this as I was able to ask real people what their college life, path, career options, and day-to-day were like. I now know what I wish to pursue (in terms of college), but also have a decent bit of context on post-college life. Meeting these people (who all were incredibly nice) was also super awesome and really helpful.
I did not know which path to pursue and this program helped me with that. I enjoyed talking to the 3 experts of their respective fields and obtained detailed information regarding the same. It was especially great that they not only talked about the pros of their field but also about somethings that they struggled through and this will help me in deciding my career path. The best part of the program was their enthusiasm. They were happy to answer all my questions and made the session super fun for me.
This program helped me to gain clarity on future career options and majors. I knew vaguely what I wanted to study in college, but I wasn’t sure how that would pan out into a career. Because of this program, I got to see some of the options I had available as paths. The best part of the program for me was discovering the an entire subject of study I hadn’t even considered: Biomedical Engineering.
The Pathfinders program really did help me find my path. After meeting with my three mentors, I felt so informed and confident about my career path. The best part of this program is that in being given the opportunity to widen my options, I actually was able to narrow it down. That is the power of exploring in programs like Pathfinders.
Ross Greer
PhD Candidate in Electrical & Computer Engineering
Ross Greer is a PhD Candidate in Electrical & Computer Engineering studying Intelligent Systems, Robotics, and Control at the University of California, San Diego.
Logan Pearce
PhD candidate in Social Psychology at Princeton University
Logan Pearce is completing her PhD in Social Psychology at Princeton University. Before Princeton, she earned her B.S. in Symbolic Systems, an interdisciplinary major spanning computer science, psychology, linguistics, and philosophy, from Stanford University in 2020.
Chelsea
Doctoral Candidate at Stanford University
Chelsea Harder is a mixed methods researcher completing her Doctorate at Stanford University. She is an expert in Sensory Culture.