When Clyde Zaidins retired from CU Denver in 2004 he moved to a quiet peninsula off the coast of Washington state and left the high-stress world of academia far behind...or so he thought. With research interests in astrophysics and nuclear physics, and the active mind of a true life-long-learner, Zaidins couldn't exactly sit still. He set up a website to stay connected to the physics community and tutored local k-12 kids in science and math, but generally kept a pretty low profile. Having graduated from the prestigious California Institute of Technology, and then following that up with nearly four decades of service as an educator teaching at CU Denver from 1967 to 2004, Zaidins was ready for a bit of well-earned rest and relaxation.

But, when the Physics Department asked Zaidins to come back as Chair in the fall of 2014, he couldn't resist the opportunity to help the department and the discipline he loves. Always a dedicated educator, after moving back to Denver Zaidins found that running the department left him with some time on his hands and a wish to work directly with students. When he was contacted by the Denver Public School system to see if he would be interested in helping future physicists in the Denver area he was excited to get involved. While his step-daughter attended school in DPS in the 1990s, Zaidins had first served on and later chaired the Advisory Committee for the Gifted and Talented Program. He knew how many bright students could use the help of interested adults. The Gifted and Talented program has a long history of helping students in third through eighth grades with mentorships, but Zaidins was delighted to find out that last year Academic Mentors began piloting a new program for high school students. He was proud to become a mentor to several bright students interested in physics as part of that first cohort, and hopes that sharing his story might encourage others to consider mentoring as well.

The Academic Mentors Project has served more than 2,200 students in Denver Public Schools since 1984. The program matches high achieving DPS students with community volunteers who are accomplished professionals in their field. The Mentors Project gives these hardworking students opportunities for learning that are not available in the regular classroom. Together, students and mentors collaborate on projects designed to help students learn more about particular careers or to increase their understanding and competence in an area of outstanding ability.

Last spring Zaidins was put in contact with two mentees just starting their junior years, both interested in studying physics, one at East High and another at John F. Kennedy High. Both students were extremely focused, smart, and diligent. Zaidins was especially impressed by one of his mentees who was keenly interested in astrophysics, and grasped particle physics more quickly than almost any student Zaidins has worked with in the past. Zaidins hoped to intellectually challenge this mentee in the time they spent together, and could clearly see the fruits of his labor in the impressive presentation she made to her class at the end of the term. It was clear to him that she had truly mastered the subjects they had worked on.

"This program is important for so many reasons," says Laura Kent, Academic Mentors Program Manager. "It really starts to build bridges for students who have a dream of one day becoming a computer programmer, or an architect, or a lawyer, but they don't have the vision of how to achieve that dream. So this program starts to build those connections, and gives the students some tools to be able to see where they're going, make some good decisions as they move through their middle and high school years, and to be able to fulfill their dream."

The DPS Mentor's Project isn't as formal, or formidable, a commitment as some other programs. After a volunteer mentor is screened, an initial meeting between the mentor and the student is scheduled, and teachers and parents are encouraged to attend. The purpose of this session is for the mentor and the student to make sure they are a good fit, discuss objectives, plan activities to be included in the project, and work out a meeting schedule. Meetings times are flexible, depending on the mentor's schedule, and parents are responsible to provide transportation for the student. Students and mentors are required to meet for at least six hours in a semester, but given freedom to mold the mentorships around the needs of the students. Sometimes students in the program set up regularly scheduled sessions at the mentor's place of business, while in other cases informal chats over the phone in response to questions take place organically as they arise. The mentorships culminate with mentees sharing presentations on the learning experience with their classmates, thereby broadening the impact of the program to even more students. Mentors are encouraged to attend these final classroom presentations, and Zaidins found attending them and seeing the work the students had done with his help most rewarding.

While at JFK High observing the presentation of his previous mentee, Zaidins met what he describes as "a truly exceptional student," who went on to become his third mentee. He remembers watching the class from the back of the room and noticing "a young woman with spiked hair, really memorable because she was putting her hand up and answering every one of the teacher's questions." Zaidins inquired about the student and found out that in middle-school she had participated in an Academic Mentorship at a division of Lockheed Martin working on one of the space projects. Zaidins was so impressed with this student that he brought her to the CU Denver campus to meet the faculty in Physics after discussions with her school's Gifted and Talented program. "She asked good questions, every single member of the faculty was really impressed with her," Zaidins remembers. After getting introductions from all of the faculty and learning about the work going on at CU Denver, the student took an unpaid position helping out in Professor Martin Huber's lab over this past summer. Informally, Zaidins gave her tutorials in nuclear physics as well, which will come in handy as her future plans include going to MIT or the Naval Academy, with the eventual goal of working on a nuclear submarine.

Talented students like these, Zaidins observes, have a lot of drive but sometimes lack people in their lives to draw inspiration from or ask questions of. He's been blown away by his mentees' dedication to education: one of the students he worked with spent over two hours each day on buses in order to attend JFK High and be a part of the International Baccalaureate program. Zaidins observes, "She has such energy and ambition. She knows what she wants, and she knows that if she wants something it's up to her to get it." Zaidins encourages his mentees whose families have limited financial resources to apply to their dream schools, and gives them tips about how to get in and make their dreams a reality. While he knows he is the one doing the "giving," Zaidins has been so reenergized by the time he spends with these students he sees it much more as a mutually beneficial relationship.

Volunteering often requires a large commitment of time, but Zaidins stresses that almost everyone has time and skills that they could offer to a student looking for direction, and he hopes more people will consider signing up for the Academic Mentors Program. "That's the key; there are so many people out there who are potential mentors." Zaidins stresses that no teaching background is necessary, and says, "It is a rewarding experience for the mentor and it's impossible to measure the long-range positive impact on the mentee. In his recent television series, Cosmos, Neil deGrasse Tyson related the extremely positive effect spending a day with the late Carl Sagan had on him as a teenager. Imagine what your relatively small investment in time might produce someday in a student."

All alumni and current CU Denver community member interested in becoming a mentor can find out more information at http://cri.dpsk12.org/volunteer-as-an-academic-mentor/. After signing-up, potential mentors' information will be kept on-file until students with matching areas-of-interest are in the program. A video about how rewarding mentoring can be can be found at http://www.bigbrainclub.com/blog/high-school-junior-develops-cool-new-software/.