Oregon teen builds free platform to help students find research mentors and publish their work

Riya Velhal, Founder & President of StratScholar (Image Credit: 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.According to Velhal's profile on StratScholar, she began her first internship at the start of her sophomore year and remembers feeling “extremely lost.” 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.A difficult first experienceVelhal's introduction to research did not come with a clear roadmap. During her first internship, she found herself without the resources, support system and community neede...