Clau Diah joined Minds Matter DC in its inaugural year as one of only five sophomores from a competitive pool of applicants. She indicated a strong interest in psychology, medicine, and creative writing. Throughout the course of her first year with Minds Matter, she worked diligently with her mentors and instructors to improve her SAT scores and determine which summer programs she wanted to attend. For her sophomore year, she chose one focused on medicine and psychology, which solidified her interest in majoring in psychology in college.

For her junior year summer program, she decided to explore creative writing—now her anticipated college minor—and attended an Emerging Young Writers program at Stanford University. During her summer programs, she met other aspiring students and learned about the rigors of college while becoming more comfortable with life on a university campus. Clau Diah noted, “Minds Matter helped me a lot with college goals and college preparedness [through] the summer programs I went to.”

Due to her outstanding academic achievement, Clau Diah was accepted at George Washington University and offered merit and need-based scholarships set to fully cover the cost of her attendance. She credits Minds Matter with helping to make this possible, remarking, “Minds Matter helps a lot in preparing to be college ready, improving time management, and juggling many activities at once, like work, studies, and extracurriculars.” We at Minds Matter DC are very proud of Clau Diah and will be cheering her on as she continues on to college!