As science marches on, Caltech Y hones a public service mindset in future leaders
For more than a century, the California Institute of Technology, or Caltech, has been a global beacon of scientific progress and discovery, attracting some of the world’s brightest minds to Pasadena.
For much of that time, the Caltech Y, a nonprofit affiliated with the school, has been providing valuable opportunities for Caltech students to serve the community, explore California’s natural wonders, meet thought leaders and learn how their scientific knowledge can serve the world.
“What the Caltech Y does is it focuses on the leadership development, emotional development, mental health wellness of the students at Caltech,” explained Caltech Y Board Chair, Cindy Bengston. “They learn outstanding academics in the classroom, but what we do is we try to make them a whole person that can actually become a leader.”
With December’s final exams fast approaching and Caltech’s pupils retreating into their studies in preparation, there is perhaps no time when the Caltech Y’s mission, to foster healthy and well-rounded students, is more important.
To instill a sense of leadership, the Caltech Y relies on students to help organize its programs and drive the organization’s direction as board members. These programs include tutoring students from the Pasadena Unified School District, serving meals at Pasadena’s Union Station Adult Center, student-led nature trips, on-campus speaker series and educational opportunities both on-campus and around the world.
One such program is the Caltech Y’s yearly trip to Washington, D.C., where students have the opportunity to meet with public servants and policy-makers who speak on the relationship between science and public policy. Rupa Kurinchi-Vendhan, current president of the Caltech Y and a fourth-year undergrad at Caltech, fondly remembers attending this program as a first-year.
“A lot of our discussions were centered around sustainability and my research at the time was related to renewable energy,” Kurinchi-Vendhan recalled. “So it was a really good way to draw connections between what I’m excited about in the classroom and in the lab to, you know, what the impact of it could be in the real world.”
Kurinchi-Vendhan, who studies computer science, has been deeply involved with the Caltech Y ever since. In order to provide students with the opportunity to explore their passions outside the campus walls, the Caltech Y also provides financial awards for those who wish to plan their own external learning opportunities. This summer, Kurinchi-Vendhan received funds through the Caltech Y to spend six weeks on Moorea, in French Polynesia, taking part in research on the island’s coral reefs.
“I planted corals, I seeded Coral nurseries, I met with different fishermen and I learned their perspectives on the importance of saving the reef,” Kurinchi-Vendhan recounted. Kurinchi-Vendhan was also able to incorporate the knowledge gained from the fishermen into her research, mapping the reefs.
“For someone who did a lot of research related to climate change and sustainability, getting the chance to truly reconnect with nature just renewed my passion for what I do,” Kurinchi-Vendhan said.
Kurinchi-Vendhan has also been very involved in the Caltech Y’s RISE program, where Caltech students tutor PUSD students in STEM. Like Kurinchi-Vendhan, fourth-year physics graduate student Isaac Legred has found tutoring to be a highly rewarding experience.
Legred feels that years of being deeply involved in academics give Caltech tutors a unique perspective on how to teach younger students.
“A lot of graduate students in math, physics, other sciences think a lot about how the education system works and doesn’t work and how students learn and don’t learn. How personally we learn and don’t learn as well,” he explained.
Sophie Hourihane, a fourth-year Caltech graduate student researching gravitational waves, is a current RISE tutor who has also mentored undergraduate students through another program at Caltech.
“In general, they’ve had a lot more opportunities than students that we see in the RISE program,” Hourihane explained. “So I think it’s really important to give the same opportunities, or at least some opportunities, to students in these communities.”
The Caltech Y also has a long history of inviting intellectual and political leaders to share their unique perspectives with the Caltech community. Past speakers include Martin Luther King, Jr and Walter Reuther. Currently, the Caltech Y is hosting the “Caltech Y Local Government Seminar Series” where former Pasadena mayor Terry Tornek guides students through the workings of local government.
The event description describes the series as an opportunity “to demystify local government and to provide enough information to allow scientist-citizens to apply their critical thinking to benefit their communities.”
After 107 years in operation, the Caltech Y is still providing students with vital opportunities to broaden their view beyond textbooks and laboratories. Accoding to Kurinchi-Vendhan, the Caltech Y gives students the opportunity “to have that connection to the outside community and to be able to engage with the world around them in diverse ways and to be able to explore different perspectives.”
