This summer, with the help of our fabulous Communications Intern Isabel Thompson, we’ll be maintaining a “Where Are They Now?” blog series. It’ll check in with past winners of our annual Impact Challenge as well as with past participants of our Accelerator Program, and document where they are in their work today. In this edition, we interviewed ManyMentor’s Co-Founder Keshia Ashe.

Keshia Ashe was a driven social entrepreneur from the start. As a young adolescent, she was already involved in youth engagement. Originally from Hampton, Virginia, Keshia worked with several community initiatives and advisory groups. She served as chair for the Hampton Youth Connection. And before graduating from high school, she was even doing some youth development consulting, and giving speeches and running workshops. She then attended the University of Virginia, where she earned her B.A. in Biomedical Engineering and focused her research on bone tissue engineering. Keshia is now in the final stages of a Chemical Engineering Ph.D. program with the University of Connecticut.

During our conversation, Keisha confided how much she missed being involved in people oriented services during her schooling years and how it was that longing that motivated her and her Many Mentors’ Co-Founder Tiffany St. Bernard to go to the drawing board.

Launched in 2011, Many Mentors is a non-profit mentorship organization geared towards empowering youth interested in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) education. The organization has grown tremendously over the past three years, and it provides students both in-person and online mentoring opportunities. Many Mentors currently has 200 mentors working to inspire youth development and the organization is nowhere near slowing down.

I was particularly interested to hear about Keshia’s experience with reSET’s Accelerator back in it’s first cohort and what she found most beneficial about the program.

“Learning that there were people out there who were willing to help entrepreneurs like me meant so much at the time. I was made aware of resources, both formal and informal, that I didn’t know about before,” Keshia explained.

Keshia also talked about the creation of the Many Mentors app and how it was a difficult venture to navigate. “If it weren’t for reSET, I would have never taken that step,” Keshia reflected.

Halfway through our conversation, Keshia provided some great insight about women and minorities in the STEM fields. She explained how young people seem to be under educated about the fields and the available opportunities. “Women are actually paid more in these fields…the wage gap is a lot less present,” said Keshia.

When asked where she saw Many Mentors in the coming year, without hesitation, Keshia said they will be in in a “stage of growth.” They want to continue to raise their numbers and to meet their community’s needs, while also shoring up funding sources. Instead of solely relying on grants. Keshia and her partner are now pursuing more contracts to work with schools and institutions in the area. She added, “As reSET taught me, having a sustainable business model is key.”

As we wrapped up our conversation, I squeezed in one final question, a question I always look forward to asking interviewees of this series: If you were to give one piece of advice to a social entrepreneur starting out, what would it be?

Keshia replied, “Don’t sit behind your computer. Don’t sit in your office cubical. Learn from others. Learn from their failures. Ultimately, that will make you more successful.”

For more information about Many Mentors or to become a mentor, please contact Keshia Ashe (keshia@manymentors.org) or visit their website.