Riya Velhal, Founder & President of StratScholar (Image Credit: StratScholar)
She began her first internship at the start of her sophomore year and remembers feeling “extremely lost, according to Velhal’s profile on StratScholar. For many high-school students, becoming interested in research is easier than figuring out how to actually begin. Finding a mentor, understanding research methods, and knowing how to publish or share completed work can be difficult without the right guidance. Riya Velhal, an Oregon high-school junior, experienced that uncertainty herself during her first research internship. Instead of allowing that experience to discourage her, she used it as inspiration to create a student-led initiative aimed at helping other students navigate research with greater confidence. Her experience eventually inspired her to create StratScholar, a student-led initiative focused on giving young researchers access to mentorship, resources, and opportunities to share their work.
Because her experience moved from uncertainty to independent exploration, that progression is significant. The student who initially felt lost while trying to understand research eventually began working on her own research interests and thinking about how other students could receive better support. For a high-school student, that can make an already complicated process feel overwhelming. Research involves more than choosing an interesting topic. Students need to learn how to develop questions, find reliable information, understand existing research and communicate their findings. Without someone to provide direction, it can be difficult to know whether an idea is worth pursuing or what steps should come next. Rather than viewing her difficult first internship as a setback, Velhal used it to think about how the research experience could be made easier for other teenagers. Her answer was to create a student-led platform where young people could find research opportunities, connect with mentors and develop their research interests. StratScholar is built around the idea that students should not have to rely entirely on existing personal connections to discover research opportunities. The organisation aims to make research experiences more accessible to middle and high-school students. The initiative also emphasises students learning from one another. Instead of presenting research as something available only to students who already understand the academic system, StratScholar seeks to create a community where young researchers can receive guidance while developing their own interests. For Velhal, this mission is closely connected to her own development as a researcher. After her first internship, Velhal continued exploring research independently. Her StratScholar profile notes that she became involved in independent research related to campaign finance, giving her an opportunity to explore a subject in greater depth. Knowing where to begin can be one of the biggest challenges for young researchers. A student might have an interesting question but have no idea which expert to contact. Another might complete a project but not know how to present or publish it. Someone else might simply need another student to explain how the research process works.