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Ivy League mentorship for college applications and career foundations through meaningful projects
High school students and their parents in the Bay Area, across the United States and around the world are likely familiar with the idea that getting into college means getting involved in a slew of extracurricular activities, regardless of a student’s interests.
“Students in the area have been overly competitive in academics and doing a bunch of cookie-cutter extracurriculars, like spending time trying to raise their SAT score from 1550 to 1580, founding nonprofit organizations that are internally run by their parents, and so on,” said Clara Zhi.
PathMentors.co
hello@pathmentors.co
(650) 665-3225
Locations:
3101 Park Boulevard
Palo Alto, CA 94306
&
1825 S Grant Street,
Ste. 200,
San Mateo, CA 94402
While attending Columbia University, Zhi and fellow graduate student Jimmy Zhang came up with a better idea: Empower high school students to prepare for college and future careers by discovering their true interests and strengths through hands-on, project-based mentorship.
“When you find your true passion, a lot of good things follow,” Zhi said. “You’re more confident and productive, you have better communication, and you are recognized with achievements and awards in the field and acceptances to dream summer programs, colleges, and internships.”
WIth that in mind, Path Mentors was born in 2019.
“Our goal is to have each student develop and find their passion through hands-on, impact-driven projects,” Zhi said.
“When you focus on what you’re naturally good at and immerse yourself in what you love, you often lose track of time, and that kind of genuine passion and growth is exactly what top schools are looking for.”
The multidisciplinary skills I acquired through my mentors were undeniably invaluable to setting me up for success at college.”
Laura Jun, student
That passion can be found by teaming up with Ivy League, Stanford and MIT educated professionals who guide students through projects focused on topics that may be new to them.
“Many parents come back saying, ‘my child is so motivated after joining the program and has started to talk to us about their ideas,’” Zhi said.
One such creative technologist, Spencer Yen, with experience at several tech unicorns, has mentored eight students so far.
“My goal when working with students is to find an idea for an app or game that they want themselves because I find that to be a much better intrinsic motivator than the general ‘everyone should learn to code’ sentiment that can be a little forced and misguided,” Yen said.
He worked with Laura Jun, an equestrian from a young age who wanted to create a way to track competitions.
“I had only really elementary coding experience prior to meeting with Spencer,” Jun said.
Yen supported her by teaching programming and core logic from scratch.“Over just three months, she went from idea and pen-and-paper sketches of screens to a fully functional iPhone app called Equipoint that helps equestrian riders manage and track results across equestrian competitions,” Yen said.
Jun submitted the app to Apple’s Swift Student Challenge, one of three projects she worked on at Path Mentors. She also learned from a financial analyst how to make an equity report and created a stock pitch for a global competition. She learned from a digital designer how to make an equestrian website and portfolio.
“The multidisciplinary skills I acquired through my mentors were undeniably invaluable to setting me up for success at college,” Jun said.
Jun is now studying the arts, technology, and business of innovation at University of Southern California’s Iovine and Young Academy, which had an acceptance rate of only about 3% in 2024.
“I see the skills my mentors taught me reaching far beyond the projects I worked on with them,” she said.
Jun’s experience illustrates how project-based learning allows students to apply skills in personally meaningful ways.
“That can help them in the college application process to show that they aren’t just checking boxes of activities or extracurriculars,” Yen said. “It’s more of a mentality shift that you can just do things. And having a mentor to create some structure to guide you through that creation process can bridge the gap from an idea in your head to a completed project.”
While projects focus on impact, Path Mentors encourages students to explore cutting-edge areas such as artificial intelligence, finance, psychology, cryptocurrency, philanthropy, user interface and user experience design, and film production.
“Many Path Mentors alumni have jump-started their careers in banking, hedge funds, and tech firms and secured prestigious internships early on in their college careers,” Zhi said.
The journey begins with an in-depth evaluation to help students explore possibilities and discover interests.
Path Mentors was born out of dissatisfaction with the toxic high-pressure environment that college admissions has created. Founded in 2019 by Columbia graduates, the Path Mentors’ team of nearly 100 mentors from a wide range of professions including technology, finance, medicine, science, film, design, animation and law, helps high school students stand out without burning out.
Path Mentors was born out of dissatisfaction with the toxic high-pressure environment of college admissions. The team of nearly 100 Ivy-League, Stanford and MIT mentors from a wide range of professions including technology, finance, medicine, science, film, design, animation, law, and more.helps high school students stand out without burning out.
PathMentors.co
hello@pathmentors.co
(650) 665-3225
Locations:
3101 Park Boulevard
Palo Alto, CA 94306
&
1825 S Grant Street,
Ste. 200,
San Mateo, CA 94402
