Justine Lesforis discusses winning a Baton Award for STEM Trailblazer in recognition of her outreach work.

Justine Lesforis, Grants Manager for the Departments of Brain Sciences and Infectious Disease discusses winning a Baton Award for STEM Trailblazer in recognition of her outreach and mentoring work with young people.

We spoke to Justine to learn more about the award and her outreach work. 

Can you tell us about the Baton Awards and how it felt to have won?

The Baton Awards are relatively new awards that celebrate women from diverse racial groups across different sectors. My friend nominated me for the STEM Trailblazer category in recognition of my mentoring work with young people.

There were over 600 applications, It was shortlisted down to ten and then to three finalists, which included structural engineer Roma Agrawal! To hear my name called out at a ceremony at the Houses of Parliament was an incredibly surreal experience. I did not expect to win at all, so I hadn't prepared a speech! Overall, it was an inspiring and memorable evening. 

I’ve typically downplayed all my outreach work to friends and family! So winning the award has been a nice confidence boost and made me realise how much of my personal time I have given up for my outreach projects and continue to do so.

Tell us about your mentoring work that led to you to being nominated?

I’ve started a mentoring network for young people a few years ago, I am currently rebranding as there has been a shift in the needs for the type of mentoring services needed and what is available today. A focus of my mentoring and coaching is to support what society refers to as underprivileged children from low-income backgrounds. I mentor two children every Saturday and I give them three hours of my time to discuss school work, life skills and career discussions.

I’m also involved with the mentoring charity, ReachOut. Mentoring boys aged 14 – 16 years old. Considering the issues around knife crime amongst young people in London, I feel that boys of this age require more support and are often left behind. I also wanted to join this scheme as there weren’t many other mentors from diverse racial groups. I feel race and culture does play a part in understanding how the mentees are viewed in society and the decisions they make in life.

How does it feel to have your work recognised with a Baton Award?

Winning the award felt very special. Being a woman of colour, especially at an institution like Imperial, there are not many of us and I don't feel like we get recognised that much. Very rarely do I see other black women in my working environment and what I mean by that is black women working in Finance or even working in STEM, so the role of awards such as these in improving visibility is important. 

Off the back of the Baton Awards, I’ve been invited to deliver several talks at schools. I took part in a panel session with five other women, speaking about my experiences of being a woman in mathematics and finance. I’m glad I’m able to use the awards as a platform to inspire the next generation and to highlight various career paths as my career has been so diverse.

Have you been involved with any mentoring schemes at Imperial?

I am involved in the reverse mentoring programme which launched last year, and I’ve been paired with a senior member of College to mentor. The conversations we’ve had so far have been great and it has given me an insight into understanding how people from different backgrounds navigate an institution like Imperial.

I’ve also personally benefited from mentoring when I took part in IMPACT, Imperial's talent development programme for staff from diverse racial groups. I had a fantastic mentor who helped me understand the Imperial culture and how to help make changes.

What sort of comments do you get from the young people you work with about your role?

When I tell the young people I mentor that I work in finance for Imperial, the first thing they ask is: so how did you get there? What did you do? Who helped you? 

To be honest, I did have two or three mentors from the age of 14 – 20 that helped me along the way; they exposed me to these environments and institutions as well as internships that I participated in. They helped me find my way and carve a path in finance. This is why I’m so passionate about doing mentoring and outreach work.

Young people from underprivileged background don't typically get exposure to institutions like Imperial, so it’s incredibly important that we open our doors to them early on in their secondary education. When it's time to pick university choices, they are more likely to choose institutions they’ve been previously been exposed to.

Are there any changes you'd like to see at a College level to celebrate diversity in STEM?

I think the College is doing very well when it comes to gender, as seen by the brilliant Women@Imperial campaign. I think there could be more work done around disability awareness – so many people have hidden disabilities – so we need to bring that more into the forefront and celebrate that.

When it comes to race, I think we just need to be a bit more confident with discussing race. We need to start paying attention to those people who are willing to speak up about the issues and utilise their ideas to propel us in the right direction.

I also think that Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) training courses should be made mandatory, especially to senior staff or those hiring new people. This would help break down some unconscious biases some hold about different cultures and backgrounds.

What would you say to anyone who wants to get the most out of a coaching or mentoring relationship?

I think both have a very different relationship. With coaching, you have to be the one to run and lead the discussion and your coach is only there to guide and advise. When you go to a coaching session you have some clear goals and outline objectives of what you want to achieve.

Whereas with a mentor it will be in a bit more in-depth. When I'm mentoring my students, they usually come to me for advice and I’ll throw out a number of options and ideas which we’ll discuss together.   

Finally, decide if you want a mentor or a coach and you only get out as much as you put in. go into each session with a plan of what you want to achieve

 Nominations for Baton Awards 2020 are open until 31 August 2020.