Think Alike?” S3E4: Mentorship Through Community

Teaser

Sergio Crespo Flores: After our events, I felt so alive, and I felt so motivated to keep doing neuroscience. I was like, yeah, I am part of something bigger than my own, and I am accepted because I see other people who share my experience.

Introduction

Welcome to Think Alike, a podcast from Neuronline that delves into the art and science of mentorship within the neuroscience community.

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This episode’s guests are Sergio Crespo Flores and Francisco Torres.

Sergio Crespo Flores: Hi, everybody. My name is Sergio Crespo Flores. I am a PhD candidate at Rutgers University, and I am the founding president of NeuroLatine. I’m thankful for this opportunity to be here with you today. I’ll pass it along to Francisco.

Francisco Torres: Hi, everyone. My name is Francisco Torres. I’m also a PhD candidate in neuroscience here at Michigan and one of the founding members of NeuroLatine. I’m super excited to have this conversation.

Sergio Crespo Flores: We’ll start off by telling you a little bit about ourselves — just a brief background on who we are and what motivated us to start NeuroLatine.

As I mentioned, I’m a PhD candidate at Rutgers University. For me, in terms of my background, something that I always like to point out is that, honestly, I didn’t know I was going to get to this point where I was going to be a PhD candidate at a university because I grew up in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. So, for me, just the idea of even going to college seemed pretty impossible.

But, alas, I pushed through. Through various initiatives, I started the first group for undocumented students at my college. That’s really where my passion for creating communities and spaces for people, on campus and outside of campus, came about.

Now that I’m in graduate school, I’ve also been part of different communities, such as the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development program. I learned a lot by being part of these communities. Now I’ll pass it along to Francisco to tell you a little bit about his background.

Francisco Torres: I can relate a lot to that sentiment you shared, where it’s interesting to see the trajectory that we’ve had and see where we’ve landed.

I started at the University of Puerto Rico in Cayey, a great university with tremendous educational resources. One of the biggest formative experiences for me was being part of NeuroBoricuas, which is a student-led organization that helps bring neuroscience educational dynamics, resources, and projects to different schools, especially underserved communities on the island.

Not only do we bring those educational resources, but we also bring each other up — the students and the different mentors who participate — and create an environment where people can get excited about not just neuroscience, but scientific communication and education.

Those were things that were very wholesome for me because I’ve always been someone who loves to science and loves sharing with the community as well. Bringing those communities together and helping form them in the early stages of my career definitely guided me in many of the decisions that I’ve made here in graduate school, including NeuroLatine. It has been such a tremendous opportunity to continue bringing opportunities to people who may not always have a prescribed space for them to share identities, not just as neuroscientists, but as Latine individuals.

Sergio Crespo Flores: Thank you, Francisco, for sharing that. As you can see from our backgrounds, we were part of these communities that were very important to us. We both met when we joined the neuroscience community, specifically through the Neuroscience Scholars Program.

Francisco Torres: I think it was such a tremendous opportunity to be supported. We were both Fellows. We met, I believe, in 2023.

The Neuroscience Scholars Program really brought a cohort of individuals together who could share experiences, but also bring their own scientific backgrounds and individual backgrounds together and share those experiences to support each other.

Maybe you want to give a little bit of the backstory for how that brought about NeuroLatine as a result.

Sergio Crespo Flores: Yeah. I didn’t mention at the beginning, but I am from Mexico, and it was actually the first time that I met other neuroscientists from Mexico through the Neuroscience Scholars Program — and, of course, from all over Latin America and the Caribbean.

When we met through the Neuroscience Scholars Program, it was me, Francisco, and our other co-founders, Daniela, Minerva, and Fernanda. I always like to say it was like putting together the Avengers when this idea came along of creating NeuroLatine.

The reason we wanted to make NeuroLatine was primarily because we knew we were going to have the opportunity to come back for the Society for Neuroscience the upcoming year. The next year was going to be in Chicago. We all met at the Washington, D.C., conference.

We thought, wow, Chicago has a heavily Latine population, heavy Mexican representation, Puerto Rican representation, just all around us. We need to have an event that brings together people who are Latine into a common space.

So we got our thoughts together and asked, what can we do? I’ll hand it off to Francisco to talk about what we did.

Francisco Torres: We organized a panel of incredibly talented Latine researchers. We had faculty and a postdoctoral fellow represented as well.

Essentially, we did a Q&A session where students could bring their questions. Minerva and I directed the panel, and that was such a wonderful experience.

One thing about being a part of NeuroLatine and the Neuroscience Scholars Program is that they give you the opportunity to really grow and seize the moment to do things that are outside of your comfort zone. For me, working on that panel was one of those moments.

Thinking back about that workshop — not just the panel, but the moment where people got together and we got to do a sort of lotería social bingo afterward where people could interact — what really stood out to me was sitting on that panel and watching all of the people who had shown up.

There were different people we had met through NSP, but also people I hadn’t met before. My mentors were there. My lab was there as well. Everyone was coming together to support Latine neuroscientists and individuals sharing our experiences, creating these connections and this network that otherwise maybe wouldn’t have been formed.

I firmly believe that, with that event, many people made very valuable connections. I know that I did — and, if not, at least a feeling of community.

I think that’s a common theme for you and me. The chance to relate through our personal and professional experiences is really important for us to fight that impostor syndrome, which I know is very common for minorities in STEM as well.

Sergio Crespo Flores: For us, we were creating this community, and we were building it together. That’s when the mission of NeuroLatine really became clear.

For us, it’s pretty simple: It’s about creating spaces for Latine neuroscientists to come together. Within it, we believe that we can form these relationships that can lead to mentorship opportunities naturally because we all have a shared identity and experience. That in itself helps facilitate the mentorship aspect of it.

One thing we should definitely bring up is the fact that, in creating NeuroLatine, we were inspired by what established organizations like Black In Neuro and Natives in Neuro have been doing. We saw what they were doing and thought, wow, this is so inspiring. They are creating their own spaces.

That felt so powerful to us that we wanted to do the same thing for Latines in neuroscience.

Francisco Torres: For me, being an undergraduate in Puerto Rico, there weren’t many graduate students, especially in Cayey. There were very few, especially in neuroscience.

So, being able to be an example of someone who is doing interesting science, as well as contributing time and effort into forming community and seeing everyone organize and relate to one another, is not something I experienced when I was an undergraduate, or at least in previous stages.

I’m glad that we could start an initiative that maybe provides students now with that experience, which I didn’t have in those more formative years. Hopefully they can take something of value from that.

It kind of felt like we were recreating, on a larger scale, what we felt that first year in NSP when we found each other. I love when you say that it was like the Avengers because it really felt like we connected in a way where everyone had their own specialization — not just in research, but everyone had their own experience and dynamics that they led at their home institution and the history that they brought.

It just felt like a perfect storm for us to lead this event. Something about that event and how we came together really was one of the highlights of my PhD.

Sergio Crespo Flores: We took that experience, and then we said, we’re going to come back for San Diego. We did something a little different.

Francisco Torres: Instead of leading a workshop, we decided to do a social, leaning more on the networking aspect and bringing people together in a low-stakes environment. We had music, and again, we had a social bingo where people could connect.

I think it was equally as effective as the year prior. A lot of people started visiting each other’s posters afterward. I met a lot of great people and made some good friends at the event as well.

Again, just connecting in that shared space — community has always been something that’s so important for us. Even if it doesn’t mean securing a PhD lab or a postdoctoral lab or a collaboration across institutions, just having someone who shares those experiences is valuable.

You can look back on the memories of those conversations you had, the people you met, the people who ended up visiting your posters, or the people you connected with afterward. I think it’s incredibly valuable to have those more humane moments as well.

Sergio Crespo Flores: I agree. At SfN in San Diego, it was different because we wanted to lean more toward the social aspect and create a space for people to get to know each other.

One of the most powerful moments I remember from the social was when I got on the mic and said, everybody who’s from Puerto Rico, raise your hand. Everybody who’s from Mexico, raise your hand. Dominican Republic, El Salvador — that was so powerful.

Just the other day, I was remembering Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl, at the end when all the flags were together and he was walking out of the stadium. I was like, that’s honestly the sentiment we wanted to replicate with that event. At that moment, we were all Latine, and we all belonged in neuroscience.

Francisco Torres: Yeah. You did it first.

Sergio Crespo Flores: Yeah.

Francisco Torres: On the record. Sergio Crespo, Bad Bunny plagarized you!

Sergio Crespo Flores: Well, we did it together.

The Work of Building Community

Sergio Crespo Flores: We’re taking what we learned from these two events, and, of course, we can talk a little bit about what we learned through this experience of NeuroLatine because it hasn’t always been easy. We should mention some of the roadblocks we encountered along the way.

Francisco Torres: One thing we’ve learned for sure is that these spaces cannot exist without institutional support, be it very vocal support on a larger scale or practical monetary support.

One of our goals has been to become a nonprofit. Since we are graduate students and we’ve graduated from NSP as well, we’re kind of leading the charge, just the two of us, at this point.

It takes effort to make these spaces. It takes effort to plan. It takes effort to have that visibility. Being a mentor for the community and trying to be a good example takes work.

It’s work that’s not always prioritized. It’s work that’s not always valued, or it’s not work that’s always linked to a tangible benefit. But I don’t think that means it’s any less valuable.

Even if, in a practical academic sense, some people would shy away from performing more outreach or mentorship, I still think that, on a personal scale and even on a professional level, doing these activities is incredibly important to grow as a human being, most of all, and to give back to the community — to make the spaces that we occupy better for the next generation.

Sergio Crespo Flores: My Neuroscience Scholars Program advisor, who is Dr. Sergio Iñiguez, told it to me perfectly: It’s sort of like a wave. You have these ups and downs.

Our priority is our research. But there comes a time when what we have to do for the organization becomes the priority, and then it goes back down.

I think knowing that there are going to be these sporadic moments where the organization needs our attention — where we need to do X, Y, and Z — but that it’s also OK to take a step back and balance it out is important.

Francisco Torres: This leadership role requires you to take chances, to get out of your comfort zone, to be visible, and to be present in ways that maybe aren’t always encouraged or obvious.

I think it’s about not being afraid of taking opportunities, but also having fun with it. At the end of the day, we’re doing something for each other. It’s almost like a gift.

That’s something I learned along the way: Even when things aren’t perfect, even if there’s a missed opportunity or things that we could have done better, we take it as a learning opportunity, and next time is always better. I’m always grateful for being able to do this.

Sergio Crespo Flores: Something I definitely want to highlight is something we talked about before. People may look at us and say, wow, they have what are called leadership skills, right?

But I think, at the end of the day, you helped me reframe the way I thought about leadership because you said something about how leadership is a leap of faith.

With the current state of the world and what we’re going through, what is more of a leap of faith than what we are doing now?

Francisco Torres: Yeah, among the many things that we face.

Sergio Crespo Flores: I agree with everything you said. Honestly, it all comes down to what you highlighted: We are students.

We don’t get anything out of this besides that we’re creating something that we wish we had. We have all the determination. We have all the motivation. But, at the end of the day, we are students, and obviously we don’t have deep pockets.

Right now, we’re doing a fundraiser to help us transition into a nonprofit. We got to the point where we don’t even have money right now for our website.

I think that is a good transition into what kind of resources we’ve created with what we’ve had, which is a theme that a lot of Latine neuroscientists can relate to: You do what you can with what you have, and you really try to be creative in what you do.

One initiative that we’ve done with the resources we had is this directory. We have a directory for people who are interested in connecting with Latine neuroscientists in academia, in industry, and at the graduate school level.

We have that available on the website — well, currently not, but once it goes back live, you’ll see it.

Another initiative we have is a newsletter. Francisco, maybe you could talk about that because your newsletters are always on point.

Francisco Torres: Oh, thank you. Credit where credit is due: You and Fernanda worked really hard on the directory as well.

One thing we wanted to use the newsletter for was to highlight the achievements of the community. Whenever we have an accomplishment, I think that’s worth screaming from the mountaintops, making sure that we have that visibility so other people can feel inspired.

It’s always a pleasure to hear back and just send out good vibes into the community, especially when it can feel a little bleak, especially when it comes to the identity that we share.

Sergio Crespo Flores: At the end of the day, there’s one thing that puts these two initiatives together: We want to erase the borders between faculty, industry, and students and make these relationships occur and be accessible naturally.

The thing about NeuroLatine that we’re really motivated to continue to grow is that NeuroLatine can be beneficial to people at any stage of their career.

It’s a community made up of people at all different points in their careers. That’s really what makes it special. You can find somebody who is faculty and applying for tenure or a graduate student who is just starting their PhD, and they can meet together in these spaces.

Francisco Torres: We’re kind of at the point in our careers where we’ve been mentors and we’ve been mentees.

If you’re a mentee, you’re always grateful — or I think you should be grateful — for the opportunity and the time that people invest in you when you’re learning a new technique or getting feedback on some of your writing or a presentation.

I find it so gratifying to be on both ends, where I can give people positive feedback, something constructive, so that later, when they’re in that position to pay it forward, they can do the same.

I’ve had so many positive experiences with different mentors where they show me that we are human beings. Especially with some of the mentors we’ve had in NeuroLatine, they’ve helped us, acted as resources, and given us connections.

They show us that kindness. Even though they might not get a tangible benefit — supporting the community isn’t affecting your impact factor or your number of publications — it does make the environment better for future generations.

I think that’s really important. That’s at the core of our mission with the organization and, hopefully, something we can keep providing.

Sergio Crespo Flores: I know that I can learn something from everybody at every level, and I want to be the same for people at all levels.

Through what we’re doing, we’re providing an opportunity for people to meet each other — people who are above us, those behind us, and those at our level.

The best way I can describe it is: We’re Latine, and we love to throw parties. At our parties, there are people of all ages, and everybody comes to these gatherings. There’s something you can learn from your abuelo, abuela, tía, primo, sobrina. We’re all one.

We share these experiences, and that in itself is so powerful. When you get advice from a relative, no matter whether they’re your niece or your uncle, you take it and think, wow, it’s coming from a place where they want me to succeed because I am succeeding for them, too, and for our ancestors.

Francisco Torres: I totally agree. I love mentoring at every level — in life, in the lab, and in the greater neuroscience community.

Mentoring sometimes can be undervalued. Science can often be so individualistic. The labs themselves carry a name, but really, it’s a community working together to make something happen and to learn a little bit more about life.

Similarly, like you touched on with family gatherings and parties, we all come together, and we all have slightly different experiences. Maybe some of us have more experience, but as we connect and get older, we gather more experiences, and we want to share those lessons.

I think that’s incredibly valuable. It’s a skill that can be honed when we mentor others and share our experiences.

We’re not wasting our time. We’re not giving it away. We’re learning how to be better leaders. And as a result, we’re also improving the world.

I think it’s a critical skill. It’s not wasted; it’s incredibly valuable. If we truly believe in our conviction that we want to make the world a better place, not just with our science, that starts at the level of who you see every day or on those special occasions like a conference.

Exchanging good feedback and a positive attitude can lead to tangible, positive change — not just with a publication, but also with the words you say to another human being.

Sergio Crespo Flores: Knowing people who share your experiences is so valuable because that’s something that is not always accessible where we are.

For example, after I came back from SfN after our events, I felt so alive, and I felt so motivated to keep doing neuroscience. I was like, yeah, I am part of something bigger than my own, and I am accepted because I see other people who share my experience.

Honestly, it helps you continue the journey of becoming the best neuroscientist that we can become.

By sharing our experiences or hearing other people share their experiences, that is one of the best ways we can support our members — just knowing that the people are there who are above us and helping us lift those who are behind us.

Francisco Torres: It is a rush being a leader and hearing back and getting that feeling of gratitude and connection with people when they say, “Thank you for doing this,” or “Thank you for taking the time.”

Or just seeing people interacting when we host these events — seeing people laugh and smile, the chatter in Spanish, and the music in the background. It’s something that is fulfilling in a unique way.

Hopefully, we can keep doing that for years to come. When we eventually pass the baton to the next generation — and we are recruiting people to help us with future events and manage the organization — hopefully they can carry that motivation and drive to continue to make wholesome spaces where people can share or just bring each other up.

Should Mentors and Mentees Think Alike?

Sergio Crespo Flores: Exactly. Because, as I said, this is not about us. This idea came into our hands, and at the end of the day, we’re setting the foundation for what can exist beyond us.

As we’re wrapping up, we do want to answer this question because this podcast is called Think Alike?, and we want to answer the big question: Should mentors and mentees think alike?

For me, when I tried to interpret this question, I thought about everything we’ve said. At one point, mentors and mentees who have shared experiences do think alike.

When it comes to how we navigate this journey into becoming neuroscientists, these shared experiences build the way we think. They build the way we do science.

It’s important to have these spaces, to have people who think like us. Even at the level of language, having somebody who I can talk to about neuroscience in Spanish or who’s from Mexico is absolutely so powerful.

I also want to mention that because the question says, “Should mentors think alike?” I would debate whether “should” could also be put into question. At the end of the day, even if you don’t have these shared experiences, there are mentors out there who will find resources for you.

For example, my own, Dr. Annika Barber, is amazing in that regard. Although she doesn’t share my experience, she always finds a way for me to find people who do and to help me find an additional mentor.

So, you don’t necessarily have to think alike. I would argue that it’s not “should” or “shouldn’t,” but I would say that it’s very special when you have these shared experiences.

Francisco Torres: I agree. My mentor and I don’t share the same background, so we don’t have the same experiences. Fundamentally, maybe we don’t exactly think alike, but we have the same values, which I think is what the question is getting at.

I think it’s important to think alike in that we both recognize that we don’t necessarily have the same way of thinking, but we have empathy. We can both communicate in a way where we can arrive at a conclusion that can benefit us both — not just in the lab, but we can maintain a personable relationship.

That goes for every mentor-mentee relationship. I think it’s important to think alike, but it’s also important, even when you disagree on certain things, to take a look at your own biases and your own perspective and see where it’s OK to notice the differences as long as they’re met with respect and empathy.

Final Thoughts

Sergio Crespo Flores: As we reach our final thoughts, we really wanted to make a call to action to the audience listening today.

First of all, thank you for listening to us and giving us space in your day to hear us out.

We want to say: Continue supporting these communities. As I said, we only exist because communities already existed, like Black In Neuro and Natives in Neuro.

Now there are new communities happening. This is like a movement. We have Disabled in Neuro. We have all these different organizations that, at the core of it, are saying, “We already are here, but now we want spaces to meet each other, to help us, to elevate us.”

Francisco Torres: Thank you for listening to us talk for a bit and share our thoughts on mentorship, community, and our experiences.

Just to echo what Sergio was saying, we also have our social media — LinkedIn, Bluesky, and our website. Make sure to check those out to stay in touch.

If you agree and you vibe with what we’re saying, make sure to let us know. If you have any ideas or even just want to send positive feedback our way, let us know.

Also, our email is neurolatine@outlook.com in case you have any opportunities or want to get involved with our organization. We’d love to collaborate with everyone.

Acknowledgments

Sergio Crespo Flores: I do want to give a shout-out to the Neuroscience Scholars Program because they showed us what community is, and they showed us that we belonged in neuroscience.

We said, you know what? Latines and Latines belong in neuroscience, and we’re also part of it. We’re going to make a specific group that can help us in this journey.

Specifically, Dra. Alviña, the director of NSP, and also Cashen and Maheen, thank you for everything. We’re very appreciative.

Francisco Torres: In a way, Cashen and Maheen also made that environment for us. I always felt welcome in NSP, in no small part because of the work that they do for us as well. So, thank you.

Sergio Crespo Flores: Exactly. We also cannot forget Eduardo, Dr. Eduardo Rosa Molinar. Thank you to him again for everything they’ve done to help us feel part of the neuroscience community.

Francisco Torres: Also, shout-out to Daniela, Minerva, and Fernanda, who co-founded the organization with us. We’ve all put in the effort. We’ve all faced the roadblocks together, and we couldn’t have done it without you.

I’m grateful to you as well, Sergio. Thank you for kicking everything off with NeuroLatine. It’s been such a ride.

Sergio Crespo Flores: Thank you so much.