“...poverty
is not just a lack of money; it is not having the capability to realize one’s
full potential as a human being...”
― Abhijit
V. Banerjee, and Esther Duflo. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the
Way to Fight Global Poverty
Who Are We
My Mentor Lab is an educational charity and evidence-based poverty alleviation programme designed to increase higher education participation among underprivileged high school students in Latin America and help them complete an undergraduate degree in a developed country.
Through our two-year student mentoring scheme, curriculum, and facilitating international academic migration, our programme aims to bridge the inequality gap in education and mitigate or prevent the negative effects of forced migration and displacement.
Our Methodology
My Mentor Lab is built on a simple idea: the most effective educational programmes are those grounded in rigorous evidence. Our model integrates high-quality mentoring, targeted information, academic skill-building, and international academic migration, all supported by well-established research in economics, psychology, and education.
To ensure that our programme delivers real impact, MML is designed around interventions classified as “Great Buys” by the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP). These are approaches shown, across thousands of studies, to be the most cost-effective ways to improve learning outcomes in developing countries.
Why an Evidence-Based Model?
Governments and NGOs often invest in education programmes that sound appealing but produce little measurable impact. MML takes the opposite approach: every component of our programme is directly informed by causal evidence from development economics and education research.
Our model includes four core pillars:
1. Information and Belief-Shifting Interventions
2. High-Quality Mentorship
3. Cognitive Skills and Academic Preparation
4. International Academic Migration
5. Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) Evaluation
6. Cost-Effectiveness and Scalability
7. Why Our Model Fits Latin America — and Especially Venezuela
Read more about evidence and impact here
Our Goals
·
Reducing Inequality:
Our primary goal
is to reduce educational and socio-economic inequality through academic
scholarships, facilitating international education mobility. We focus on
providing disadvantaged students with guidance, mentorships, and resources they
need to access higher education opportunities and scholarships, both locally
and internationally, but we especially focus on academic opportunities to complete
an undergraduate degree abroad.
·
Empowering Students:
We are committed
to empowering students from underprivileged backgrounds, such as low-income
families, first-generation students, neurodivergent individuals, and those with
physical and mental disabilities. By offering targeted mentoring and academic
support, we aim to ensure that every student has the opportunity to pursue
higher education, regardless of their background.
·
Preventing Forced Migration:
We aim to
address the root causes of forced migration by providing students with viable
opportunities for personal and professional growth within their home country or
abroad. By facilitating access to higher education and career opportunities,
our program empowers students to make informed choices about their future,
reducing the pressure to migrate out of necessity. Through our support, we help
students build a stable foundation for success, enabling them to contribute to
their communities and pursue their aspirations in a way that best suits their
goals, whether they choose to study locally or internationally.
