Monday marked the beginning of candidate filing week in Washington state and the start of an election season that races toward an Aug. 4 primary before culminating in the Nov. 3 general election.

For candidates, this time of year is typically filled with door-knocking, in-person town halls and on-the-road campaign events.

So what happens when statewide bans on gatherings and stay home orders meant to prevent the spread of a deadly new coronavirus upset the natural order of campaigning?

The Post-Record recently talked to two Democratic candidates who declared early campaigns this year Washougal School Board member Donna Sinclair, who is running for a state legislature seat in the 18th District, and Vancouver professor Carolyn Long, who hopes to represent Washingtons 3rd Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives about what its like to campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Out of the gate strong and then it all stopped

When Sinclair announced her bid for state legislature in mid-January, the World Health Organization (WHO) had already alerted world leaders to be on the lookout for cases of a novel coronavirus, but the threat posed by COVID-19 was still, in most peoples minds as well as in the words of WHO reports, a developing situation.

Inside the Sinclair campaign, talks of house parties, meet-and-greets and events at public libraries still dominated discussions in late January and early February.

We got out of the gate strong, Sinclair says. I was still working a lot, so I couldnt go to many meetings, but we were doing a lot of planning and, on the weekends, doing fundraisers.

Late February brought a successful house party fundraiser Sinclairs way, and by early March she was drawing crowds at public meet-and-greet events in Salmon Creek and at the Camas Public Library.

And then it all stopped, Sinclair says. I was teaching four classes three at Western Oregon and one at (Washington State University Vancouver) and it was midterms at WSU and finals week at Western, Sinclair recalls. On March 13, we were having a midterm at WSU.

The university had already made a decision to hold online classes after the midterms concluded. One student came to the midterm wearing a mask.

The midterm, on March 13, was my last day in class, Sinclair says.

Since then, she has left her house fewer than half a dozen times and then only for essential trips to pick up groceries or get mail from her campaigns post office box.

After more details about the coronavirus dangers emerged in mid-March and people started to consider staying home to help lower the curve, Sinclair immediately shifted gears on her campaign strategy.

A lot of people have invested money in my campaign, so I couldnt just say, Theres a pandemic. I cant campaign anymore,' she says. And I didnt want to (stop campaigning.)

Instead, Sinclair looked to the strategies she was learning about in her role as a history professor.

The first thing I did was attend three or four Zoom trainings, including one on digital campaigning through Emilys List, Sinclair says. We immediately started building our social media and digital presence.

When she hosted her first Zoom event in late March, everyone was really depressed and we talked about (COVID-19), Sinclair says. I thought, Maybe this is not the time for this.'

As she spoke to more constituents of the 18th District, Sinclair realized people were hungry for more information. So she started conducting interviews with health care experts and business leaders and put that information, as well as a list of resources, out to the public.

The situation has really caused me to evaluate how Im approaching the campaign, Sinclair says. Public health is a key issue, so Im thinking a lot about that and doing as much research as I possibly can.

She is talking to people, mostly online, about their needs during the crisis.

Im talking to a lot of people who are older and need safety, pure and simple. Theyre not so much concerned about whats going to happen next; theyre concerned about not being exposed to this virus, she says.

Sinclair also talks to a lot of local business owners, who she says are just trying to hang on.

She is looking forward to campaigning more often this summer, after her classes at WSU-V and Western Oregon have wrapped up.

Until its safe to meet in small groups again, Sinclair will keep campaigning in a way that doesnt jeopardize her own health of the health of those around her: by posting her signs around the 18th District, calling people, sharing online resources and hosting digital events.

Its an ongoing process of evaluating the evidence and seeing whats safe and whats not, she says. Ill always err on the side of caution.

Meeting people where theyre at: online, at home

Anyone familiar with Carolyn Longs 2018 bid for Congress knows this candidate thrives in an in-person environment.

In fact, if this were a normal election year, one in which COVID-19 did not exist, Long would likely be hosting town halls and meet-and-greet events a few times a week.

The last time Long challenged incumbent U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, she talked about the importance of being in front of voters and of showing up to in-person events. In the build-up to the 2018 general election, Long could be found talking to politically active young people at Camas High, holding town halls at the Camas Public Library and meeting with supporters at places like 54?40 Brewing Company in Washougal.

The bread and butter of my campaign is really being in the community as much as possible, Long says, holding town halls and connecting with people on a personal level.

Since announcing her second bid as a Democratic candidate for the 3rd Congressional District in July 2019, the Washington State University Vancouver (WSU-V) professor has hosted over 50 town halls.

Recently, however, those town halls have had to go virtual.

Long held her fourth Facebook Live Town Hall last week and regularly hosts more personal, Coffee with Carolyn events online to reach out to supporters and voters.

Although the venue has shifted from a library or someones living room to a computer screen, Long says she is still trying to let people know she hears their concerns.

People are anxious. They have a desire for leadership in Southwest Washington, she says.

At the same time, Long says, she also sees people wanting to come together as a community during the COVID-19 crisis, independent of political beliefs.

People want to have a sense of community right now, Long says. At this moment that were in, were just trying to think about how we can give back to the community. The calls (Im making) to people right now are about how theyre doing. Politics is secondary.

When she meets with smaller groups online during her Coffee with Carolyn events, which tend to have 10 to 30 participants, Long hears mostly personal stories of how people are coping right now.

We talk about how theyre doing, how their family is doing, Long says.

Shes heard stories of neighbors helping neighbors, distillery owners producing hand sanitizer to give to frontline workers and people reconnecting with loved ones for the first time in months.

Thats rewarding, she says of hearing the personal stories of communities coming together for a common cause. And its something you dont necessarily get in a (non-COVID-19 environment).

Other stories arent as rosy, especially those involving small business owners.

Many have not been able to access the resources that Congress told them would be available to them, Long says. Some of these small businesses operate on very slim margins. (If they dont have funds coming in) for just a couple weeks, it can mean theyre never coming back.

Having grown up working for her parents produce stand on the Oregon Coast, Long says she understands the frustration and fear these small business owners are feeling.

At a recent Facebook Live town hall event, Long addressed the subject of the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

Im really sad to say that its not the first time Ive heard from a small business owner about the problems that theyve encountered with the small business loans, Long said. Business owners are actually keeping people on payroll in anticipation of a loan coming through and it hasnt and then theyre really putting themselves in jeopardy in terms of their financial stability.

Whats made the situation worse, she added, is the fact that large corporations seem to be getting funds meant to keep small businesses afloat during the COVID-19 shutdowns.

Long says her Facebook Live town halls tend to bring out more policy related questions.

Were hearing questions about health care and about preserving Social Security and Medicare at every town hall, Long says. And Ive never had more interest in my broadband-for-all proposal they never knew that so many people didnt have access to (broadband).

Although Long has transitioned easily to a more digital world, campaigning in the time of COVID-19 does have one definite drawback for a candidate who seems to thrive in face-to-face situations.

The most rewarding thing about campaigning for office is having the chance to meet people where theyre at and listen to whats on their mind, Long says. You cant beat having that human connection, that one-on-one I do miss that connection.

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Campaigning in a time of COVID - Camas Washougal Post Record

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The customer is always right is an outdated way of thinking about the people you serve. Its better to treat each business opportunity as a dynamic relationship with your customers. Shaking your head yes to every request or complaint is too simplistic a solution.

Thats why Customer Experience (CX) training is so important. Understanding the needs and desires of customers is what makes or breaks a business, yet so many companies overlook this important fact. Providing a service is important, but recognizing how a customer experiences your service is equally relevant.

So, if youre looking to grow your business to its fullest potential, youll want to understand the principles of CX inside and out.

As the Harvard Business Review phrases it, customer experience is the internal and subjective response customers have to any direct or indirect contact with a company. Direct contact occurs in a retail showroom or any location in which physical presence is required. For many businesses, indirect contact is even more relevant. Examples of indirect contact include the effects of your marketing campaigns or your companys social media representation.

Youve got a great service or product to offer. As the creator, however, its impossible to know what all of your customers experience. Everyone has a different notion of what the customer experience entails.

Knowing why someone buys your product is the first step in developing this relationship. Their motivation helps you decide how to communicate with them. How theyre going to use your product is also relevant. What if they purchased it for someone else, yet they want that person to be able to talk directly to you? How often are they using your service? Where are they buying it from?

There are communication strategies for each of these examples. Being fluent in the totality of CX makes you a stronger business at every step along the customer journey.

Conducting business today means that youre spending more and more time communicating digitally, which demands its own communication style. The last thing you want is frustrated customers that are unable to turn to you to solve problems.

You want to be able to build a strong customer corridor, in which they trust you at every step along the way. Honesty at the point of sale is just as important as being there if your product breaks down. Keeping a customer for life is the ultimate goal of every business. That begins with building a corridor they want to travel through with you.

Every business has different markers for success. The bottom line is often the only thing business leaders measure. That is only one metric in an ocean of data. A successful CX program means youll be learning from your customers and iterating when necessary to provide optimal customer service.

Feedback takes time to implement, but you want it from day one, from your customers as well as your employees. A successful CX means that your representatives are along for the journey as well. Effective dialogues between all aspects of a business with its customers create the conditions for a successful company.

Want to sharpen your CX knowledge? Online Training & Certification: Customer Experience 101 provides you with the basics of CX so that you can put these practical skills to immediate use. By learning how to empathize with what your customers experience and provide them with the service they deserve, the likelihood that youll retain them increases exponentially.

The course is taught by Jaakko Mnnist, founder of the mammoth entrepreneurial digital community in Finland, Yrittj.io. He is also the author of the book The Journey How to Create the Happiest Customers in the World. The course features 11 lessons and three and a half hours of content, with access to additional resources, such as quizzes, templates, ebooks, and one-on-one coaching services.

Online Training & Certification: Customer Experience 101 is on sale now for just $59. Join today, and youll save 90 per cent off of the original price.

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Grow your business by following this overlooked principle - Financial Post

Ironically, what may be the biggest obstacle between Warren and a chance to change how the economy works is her history of doing just that. Several of the people who have Bidens ear are former Obama aides who felt like Warren was pursuing her own agenda during her days setting up the CFPB, or during the days when she was using her Senate perch for moves like torpedoing a pick for an undersecretary of the Treasury because of his Wall Street background. Some key people around Biden are on edge about the thought of having to constantly be looking over at the vice presidents office, wondering what shes working on.

Warren has spoken privately about feeling chastened by the 2020 primaries. She put it all out there. She knows she lost. She knows Biden won, someone close to Warren told me. She knows were in a time of crisis, and her priority moving forward is helping make him successful.

Read: The story Elizabeth Warren isnt telling

When I asked Warren about the ex-Obama aides misgivings, she gave me a long answer that started with: Im a team player. I want to get things done. She ticked through her work setting up the CFPB as a success for Americans overall and for the Obama administrationand said that as a senator, she was doing her constitutional duty in a separate branch of government. I know that can sometimes be a bumpy relationship, she said. That is my job. She ended by repeating: I am a team player because I want to get things done.

Warren couldnt go to her brothers funeral after he died in April. She couldnt do much beyond cry by herself, 1,600 miles away in Boston, holding the phone that shed been calling Don on every day, twice a day, to check in. To lose someone when you have to wonder what were their last days like? Were they afraid? Were they cold? Were they lonely? That is a kind of grief that is new to all of us. My brothers wont get over this. They just wont. None of us will.

About 36 hours after Don died, Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts told me, Warren was on a Zoom call with her, Khanna, and Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico, strategizing about the Essential Workers Bill of Rights. Her brother didnt come up directly, though Pressley, whos also been working with her on racial-data collection, said he was clearly on her mind.

She knows that her loss, that she deeply feels, is sad and tragicbut that there are millions of families that are grappling with that same loss, Pressley said. Even when she deeply feels something, shes projecting that out.

Its a crass but real thought that has come up among some Democratic operatives in the past two weeks: Imagine Warren debating Mike Pence. The vice-presidential debate is currently scheduled for October 7, at which point its possible that 200,000 or more Americans will have died of COVID-19. She would be in the position to look at the vice president, who was put in charge of the coronavirus response, and talk to him about families like hers that will never be whole again.

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It Really Could Be Warren - The Atlantic

If society is to effectively stave off resurgences of Covid-19 infections, masks are not an option but a universal necessity, experts say. (Dan Gaken)

Is wearing a mask in public too much to ask for as Palm Coast and Flagler reopen? Does it infringe on individuals liberties? Masks have now been a significant part of that dialogue as we move to reopening, and how that impacts those numbers, Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland says of the next phase in the coronavirus emergency.

The issue took up a long portion of the weekly virtual town hall anchored by Holland on Wednesday. The answer from the experts on the paneltwo physicians, the Flagler Health Departments chief and Palm Coasts fire chiefwas an unequivocal No.(See: How and When to Wear a Mask, and How Not To.

And one physician went as far as proposing that local government should exercise its authority to write ordinances requiring the wearing of masks in certain public places, while a fire chief said shoppers should take matters in their own hand and pressure store owners or managers to institute and enforce mask-wearing rules.

I understand the civil liberties point of view with it for sure, said Dr. Vincent DeGennaro Jr., an epidemiologist, global health specialist and the chief executive officer at Abacus Pharma International in Miami. Hed called in by phone. I think we sacrifice a lot of our civil liberties in many different ways. He cited severe restrictions when flying, vaccine requirements for children in schools, the mandated wearing of seatbelts, prohibitions on drunk driving. Theres a lot of things that would impinge on your civil liberties in the name of public health. So I think theres plenty of legal precedent. I dont think its a slippery slope at all.

The more important point, DeGennaro said of wearing masks, is that it reduces the transmission of the coronavirus. Youre not wearing the mask for yourself. Youre wearing the mask for the people around you, he said. I just took what, three planes and two trains in the last week, and I feel very confident that I dont have anything, because not only was I wearing a mask, but every other single person was wearing a mask. So its really going to drop the transmission rate. And most importantly, if we could come out of our holes, go back to work and restart the economy, and the only sacrifice we had to make is wear a mask and wash our hands, isnt that a trade-off youd make? Id urge that if the county had this authority, to mandate masks in public settings where theres going to be more than two people, be it a store and other things, because its not right that someone who is vulnerable has to risk their life to go shopping because someone else wants to be defiant. You could issue tickets just like you do with seat belts. Like I said, theres plenty of legal precedent for this, and I think if were going to open up, were going to have some form of that.

For now there is no taste among local officials to mandate the wearing of masks in public, and no taste among local law enforcement to enforce such an order, if it were in place. But DeGennaros proposal is not quite radical. On April 20, Connecticut enacted an order requiring all persons age 2 and older to wear masks when using public transportation and taxis, in public places where the six-foot separation cant be maintained, and for customers and employees of essential businesses. Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island all have similar rules, with variations.

But mask-wearing is becoming emblematic of the shift in the debate over Covid-19from fighting the virus to arguing over freedoms as communities reopen. Its easy for many to plaster slogans like were in this together on their Facebook page, but for some, its harder to translate that to action when it matters.

Protests by fringe groups aside, an overwhelming majority of Americans still favored stay-at-home orders in mid- to-late late April, and a poll this week has 70 percent of Americans wanting President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence wearing masks when they travel. Trump has consistently undermined his public health experts, refusing to wear a mask. Pence rarely does so. Another poll showed that 55 percent of Americans who left their home last week wore masks.

But minorities are using the wearing of masksor the refusal to wear a askas a marker delimiting their personal freedoms and right to take what risks they choose, misconstruing the purpose and science behind the masks.

Dr. Stephen Bickel, the medical director at the Flagler and Volusia health departments, had been a skeptic on mask-wearing in the earlier weeks of the emergency. Like a convert, hes now a pro-mask fanatic, he said Wednesday.

Here are the reasons, he said, framing his answer in his characteristic but accessible language of a science journal abstract: A, if you look at the countries that have been highly successful combatting this, mostly in Asia, theyve adopted near-universal mask wearing. I dont think thats an accident. Secondly, as we look to open up the community, which we know is necessary, theres clearly a risk of this thing surging more, at least expanding to some degree. So we want to pick the least intrusive measures that we can adopt to prevent the spread, and mask wearing is very high on the list. There are models that have been constructed showing that if 60 percent of the people wear masks at any one moment, and the masks are 60 percent effective, that alone is enough to get the R0, which is the spread coefficient, down to 1, which is basically at that point the spread stops multiplying. It just stays level. Then you throw in any other measure and its additives. So it just seems to me, its kind of a slam dunk policy to adopt. You cant force it on people, I understand that. We have our interest in civil liberties. But in terms of just promoting it and people realizing theyre doing this to support their community, to protect their fellow residents, I think its just something that we should embrace as a highly effective, minimally intrusive way to really keep this thing under control, an additive to all the other measures that were going to adopt.

Bob Snyder, the director of the Flagler Health Department, said wearing masks locally should be universal, especially for indoor public settings, like grocery stores, like restaurants, pharmacies. It can be a surgical mask. It can also be a bandana, a scarf, just any cloth material, something, he said. That this is a solid strategy for reducing the transmission of Covid-19.

But local officials know the limitations theyre up againstthe me-first attitude that prevails among certain groups.

The reality of the situation is this, Palm Coast Fire Chief Jerry Forte said. People will do what they want, and everybody believes to a certain urgency what this Covid virus is. So if theres a young individual who is healthy and they feel they dont want to wear a mask, we are not going to force them to [wear] a mask. Theres no way we could do that. The actions of those not wearing a mask may be of little consequence to themselves, but [to] the vulnerable population in the city, its a very big deal.

Those who are most vulnerable are 65 and over, and those who have an underlying condition: 84 percent of Floridas more than 1,800 people killed by the virus are 65 and older.

Shoppers, Forte said, have the ability to go to the proprietor of the store, the store manager, and urge them to change their culture and their behavior, allowing people to come in with a mask on. If we cant push it from a legislative point of view, certainly the people that are going to these stores can urge these changes at the shoppers level.

Wednesdays full Palm Coast Town Hall on Covid-19. The discussion about masks begins around minute 33.

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Mask-Wearing Is Not About Personal Liberty but Communal Health, Palm Coast Town Hall Experts Say - FlaglerLive.com

ROME According to an internal Vatican analysis recently presented to Pope Francis for a meeting with his department heads, declines in revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic will cause the Vaticans annual deficit to balloon somewhere between 30 and 175 percent, depending on which of three scenarios, ranging from best to worst case, is realized.

Under the worst-case scenario, which assumes shortfalls between 50 and 80 percent and only limited success at containing costs, the 2020 deficit would be 146 million Euro, or $158 million. For a sense of scale, the total projected income for the year is $160 million, which means the Vatican would be spending twice as much as it brings in.

As a footnote, something many observers have said for a long time is worth repeating: In the grand scheme of things, $158 million just isnt that much money, especially when you put it in the context of other major Catholic entities. The University of Notre Dame in the States, for example, has an annual budget of $1.3 billion. The fact that such a comparatively modest sum could trigger an existential crisis is one measure of how much the Vaticans financial operation needs aggiornamento, meaning updating.

According to a report in the Roman newspaper Il Messaggero, as an initial response to the shortfalls Pope Francis has been advised to order department heads to cut corners, freeze hiring, and avoid travel and conferences. Such measures wont solve the problem, but they would help slow the bleeding.

A meeting between Pope Francis and Vatican department heads in November 2017. (Credit: Vatican News/CNS.)

Theres little surprising about any of this.

Its often assumed that the Vatican is losing money because its museums and other public attractions are closed, but in reality thats a blow to the Vatican City State rather than the Holy See or the Roman Curia, meaning the Churchs central government. In terms of the Holy See, its main sources of income are investments, which are suffering due to market declines; earnings from real estate holdings, which are down because of market slumps; and contributions from Catholic dioceses, which will be lower as their own resources contract.

Proceeds from the annual Peters Pence collection, which has been delayed until Oct. 4, almost certainly will fall too, in part because people simply have less money to give, and in part because of the funds association with a recent scandal involving a $225 million land deal in London. Technically Peters Pence is not part of the Vaticans balance sheets, though income has been used for years to offset the Vaticans annual deficit.

In fact, the situation may be even worse than the worst case scenario suggests.

Projections in the internal analysis presume just modest drop-offs in the Peters Pence contribution to the Vatican, and only time will tell if thats wishful thinking.

Whats also not addressed is the possible impact of the next review by Moneyval, the Council of Europes anti-money laundering watchdog, scheduled for this spring but delayed. On background, observers say Moneyval was alarmed by the abrupt departure in November of the Vaticans own anti-money laundering guru, Swiss lawyer Ren Brlhart, and should it place the Vatican on a blacklist, the Holy See could be frozen out of international markets or face significantly higher transaction costs.

Ironically, this crisis actually may help the popes attempts at reform. Change now is inevitable, no matter what sort of resistance the fabled old guard may put up, because the Vatican finds itself looking down the barrel of a $158 million gun.

Yet the devil is always in the details, so the question is what sort of reform. In that regard, two points are of special interest in the analysis submitted by the Secretariat for the Economy.

The first involves investments. The analysis recommends that Pope Francis direct heads of Vatican dicasteries (the technical term for a department) to move their liquid assets currently in other financial institutions to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA), sometimes dubbed the Vaticans central bank. Also under consideration is directing dicasteries to move assets to APSA currently deposited in the Institute for the Works of Religion, the so-called Vatican bank.

A sign designating the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, the Vaticans central bank. (Credit: Stock image.)

The reasons for doing so, presumably, would be two-fold.

First, APSA is responsible for the Vaticans payroll, and since almost half of its expenditures go to personnel not just salaries, but also pension contributions the idea is to direct assets to the area of greatest immediate need.

Second, by concentrating those assets in one place, a more rational and profitable investment plan for assets not required for day-to-day operations could be fashioned. One large investor is in a better position to negotiate returns than several smaller players acting on their own.

In this regard, the internal analysis recommends the creation of a single center of specialized service, where the financial resources available for investment of all entities would converge.

In other words, its talking about something like the Vatican Asset Management office proposed by Australian Cardinal George Pell in the summer of 2014, at the peak of his Vatican influence and before he faced the charges of sexual abuse which Australias High Court ultimately dismissed.

Heres how Pell described the idea in a July 2014 interview with me for the Boston Globe: Over time, the asset management office will come to manage the Vaticans reserves, meaning monies not needed for day-to-day operations The ambition is that by putting the various funds together, well have a bigger base sum and be able to get a better return.

The idea was dropped as Pells Vatican star began to dim, but its apparently getting a new lease on life. (As an aside, one can only imagine the satisfaction Pell may feel at seeing himself vindicated not only on the abuse charges but his financial analysis.)

The key question, however, is who would control this new fund.

The most likely candidate would be APSA, but it has a troubled history. Its former president, Italian Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, faced accusations of misappropriation during his time as the bishop of Savona. Early in Franciss papacy, a longtime accountant at APSA, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, was arrested by Italian authorities for participating in a financial scheme worthy of a James Bond novel.

In general, APSA long has had a reputation as the most opaque of the Vaticans financial centers. In 2018, the Vatican bank issued an annual report independently audited by Deloitte, one of the worlds big four accounting firms, which ran to 139 pages. APSA issues no annual report, and even the skeletal annual Vatican report, which used to provide some basic numbers, hasnt been issued since 2015.

Pope Francis tapped his own man to take over at APSA, Bishop Nunzio Galantino, in June 2018, who has a reputation for personal integrity. Yet the extent to which he appreciates the depth of the challenges is an open question; last year, Galantino dismissed talk of financial difficulties at the Vatican, telling reporters theres no crack or default here.

Bishop Nunzio Galantino with Pope Francis in 2018. (Credit: Vatican News.)

Even then, before the coronavirus, the Vatican was still running an annual deficit of around $55 million and faced mounting unfunded pension liabilities.

As a result, whom the pope chooses to put in charge of a new investment center, and what sort of team that person assembles, will go a long way towards indicating whether the inevitable restructuring is also real reform.

The other interesting piece concerns human resources.

Theres a need to ensure flexibility in the salary system in order to be able to reward competence and merit, and to be able to face critical periods like the present with adequate instruments, the internal analysis says.

At the same time, greater opportunities must be furnished to personnel, ensuring standardized formational programs and a professional mobility that allows each employee (beginning with managers and leaders of the offices) to understand and learn different tasks, within the limits of their own competencies, and to assume different responsibilities in the arc of time.

Then, a rather surprising coda to the thought: A structural reform would be desirable, the report says, but the actual circumstances dont seem favorable.

To decode all that, its a diplomatic way of making two points Vatican insiders have known for a long time.

First, the Vatican has a bloated payroll relative to its resources. It cant sustain those expenditures, not only because of salaries (which are relatively low) but pension obligations. Most observers think it needs to trim about a third of its current workforce.

Second, if that happens, remaining employees will have to be nimbler and able to work outside their present silos, perhaps working for a variety of entities where they have particular skills. That means a serious investment in professional formation.

Though its been largely forgotten amid the coronavirus, it was only two months ago that one of the more curious PR reversals in Vatican history unfolded: On a Friday, the Vatican Press Office announced the creation of a new human resources office within the Secretariat of State. Yet the very next day, the Press Office said the office is actually just an idea, and the pope will decide in his own good time what to do.

There were various theories to explain the flip-flop which may help account for the internal analysiss otherwise odd assertion that current circumstances dont favor structural reform but the fact remains that a meaningful HR operation is a make-or-break component of serious reform.

There, too, the question will be whos put in charge and what sort of team theyre able to assemble.

Finally, on the actual circumstances impeding structural reform: The raw reality is, Pope Francis doesnt want to fire people, particularly lower-level Vatican officials and manual laborers. Especially now, the situation of families without work due to the coronavirus weighs on him, and hed vastly prefer to trim payroll through retirement and attrition rather than direct action. That may be merciful, but its also frustrating for bean counters looking at a mismatch between income and expenses.

One of the sanpietrini, meaning laborers within the Vaticans Basilica of St. Peter. (Credit: Paul Haring/CNS.)

Bottom line: Like any company, or any family, facing deep and mounting debt, the Vatican cant go on like it has. Change is coming. The drama pivots on what sort of change it will be and on that front, and with apologies for the Econ 101 pun, demand for answers at the moment significantly exceeds supply.

Follow John Allen on Twitter at@JohnLAllenJr.

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Down the barrel of $158 million gun, Vatican reform is coming but what kind? - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

Its something youre looking for, right? How couldnt you be? Everywhere you go on the Internet someone telling you that you need to be successful in life. Or, risk wasting it! But heres the thing, what isPERSONAL SUCCESS? Or, more importantly, what is success to you?Without knowing the answer to that question, youre never going to be successful. No matter how hard you try. Because although you may be working hard, you might not ever be working in the right direction.

In this article, I want to help you find out what it means to be successful. Not to those around you. Not in the eyes of your parents. But so you can look in the mirror and know youre on the right path.

Lets get started, shall we?

Picture this.

1. Take 10 of your friends, relatives and colleagues and stick them all in a room. 2. Ask each of them, individually, to write down what success means to them on a sheet of paper and give it to you. 3. You put all the sheets in a hat, mix them together and then open them up to read whats inside. What are the chances all of the pieces of paper say exactly the same thing?

Slim to none. Because personal success is always different. They might read:

Each person views success differently through their own eyes. So, the question behind this article is simple: What does personal success look like to you?

Success, It Has Nothing To Do With Money Or Status

When I was younger I had a really close friend and mentor called Tom*. He was a few years older than me and was studying medicine. But I knew him through training in the Gym. Tom loved playing around in the gym. Whenever he was coaching, teaching or helping someone, he was happy and full of purpose. There was a light in his eyes that was filled with passion.

A light that went out whenever he had to think about his studies. When it came toward the end of his time at Medical school, Tom lost a lot of weight. He wasnt sleeping, he hardly ate and he was always on edge. Turns out it was time for him to accept one of his job offers as a Doctor. Something he had worked his whole life for, but now, didnt want.

After weeks of thinking about it, Tom decided to go with his gut. He turned down all the offers for being a doctor. Some that would have eventually paid him more money than he could ever have dreamed of. But would never have made him happy. And it didnt fulfill what he felt was his purpose.

Now he runs his own gym, works with international athletes and uses his medical skills to educate doctors on proper nutrition. And hes never been happier.

Through traditional eyes, Tom wouldnt be successful. He stopped himself from becoming a:

But none of those meant anything to him. Even if he had become the worlds highest paid neurosurgeon, he would never have felt successful. Because that job would never have made him happy.

NOTE: *Tom isnt his actual name, its been changedto conceal his identity.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.~ Albert Schweitzer ()

So, what do you learn from Tom not becoming a doctor?

That money, status and things dont mean anything when it comes to personal success. There is only oneimportant metric behind it HAPPINESS. If what youre doingdoesntmake you happy then you shouldnt be doing it at all. End of story.

There are two types of happiness for you to focus on, when you come to think of it:

The two are notmutually exclusive. Because when youre helping the right people, it will directly affect the things that make you happy.

In this next section well look at defining your own success, both for you, and helping those around you.

When you start looking at your own success its common to look at justoneaspect of your life. Things like:

Because its easier to focus on that one aspect of your life than it is everything else. But thats why you often see a lot of successful people with poor relationships, broken homes or severe depression or anxieties. Their focus on that single element became so strong that they let the rest of their life slip to reach the top of that mountain. Which is fine, if thats what you want. But wouldnt you rather raise the experience and success in all parts of your life, than in just one area? After all, its better to have a smaller house filled with love, than a mansion all on your own, right?

So in this next section where well look at defining your own success both for you and helping those around you remember that you dont need to look at justoneelement of your life. Instead, think ofallthe places in your life that you want to breed success.

As you climb the ladder of success, check occasionally to make sure it is leaning against the right wall.~ Anonymous ()

This next step is going to need a little self-reflection. And a pen and paper. Or the program you use as your defacto brain.

Ask yourself these questions and see what comes out for your personal success goals.

A Quick Note

In this article Ive banged on that money, status and other things dont matter when it comes to success.

And they dont.

Unless they will make you happy.

If earning $40,000 a month, being your companys next CEO or owning a hot tub will make you happy then crack on with them. Just dont feel that they are what youre expected to want, if they wont make you happy.

That being said, lets get on with the questions

It doesnt matter what it is. Write down everything you can think of. Whatever comes into your mind.Remember:

You can repeat this question as many times as you want before moving onto the next step.

You should have a list now full of ideas. And, no doubt, theyre all things that will make you happy. But nows time to filter it down to what you really want to do. For this were going to try and old trick of Warren Buffets.

Youve narrowed your list down. But that doesnt mean you should attack all five right away. Instead choose the one that you feel that you can start on right now. It could be:

Congratulations, youre already ahead of about 95% of the world. Youve narrowed down what personal success means to you. But heres the fourth and final question.

What are you going to do about it? Whats that first step youre going to take to make sure this happens?

I recently watched a TEDxTalk by Adam Leipzig who outlined a wonderful exercise to kick-start your personal success and happiness. So, why reinvent the wheel, when its already been beautifully made?

The first step to looking outwards is to look inwards. Who are you?

What are you good at, and how do those skills impact those around you? What abilities do you have that can make the world (or life) a much better place?

Now you know your skills, who do you want to help? This doesnt have to be charity though thats the first place your mind will go it can be anything at all.

What is it that they are truly looking for? Do you need to:

Anything that these people need, write it down.

What impact does all of the above have on their lives? Do they:

Outlineall off these things. Because when you know how they change, this is where your own happiness comes from.

The 7 Rules of Personal Success

You know what personal success means to you, but dont know how to get started? Follow these rules to start on the right foot and forge your own path. Read more

The 7 Point Checklist For Personal Success

Personal success is the most important kind of success. Read on to find the little things that you need to do every day to make sure you stay on the path to personal success. Read more .

5 Daily Habits of Highly Successful People

Follow these simple yet powerful habits of highly successful people to find that elusive success in your life. Stop standing still. Use your time wisely and better yourself! Read more

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What does Personal Success Mean to You - The Ultimate Guide

Measuring personal success is not just a matter of examining how much money, fame or power you have. Personal success is marked by signs of emotional growth that manifests itself in various signs and signals. This means that there is not really a standard for how far you have come in life, but rather it is about recognizing how your own personal approach and attitude towards growth in life and work have made you successful.

Examine the amount of influence you have when helping others achieve their goals. Are you able to help others achieve their goals without fear of them becoming more successful then you?

Ask yourself the following questions: Do you look at life with a positive attitude and hope for the future? Are you able to stop blaming others for any downfalls you may have experienced over the years? Can you examine the past and garner what you have learned as experience for the future instead of blaming the past for your lot in life?

Evaluate your ability to take a risk and leap out into the unknown without fear of failing. Being able to understand that failure is actually a stepping stone to all success and then not caring what others think of you for attempting the feat go a long way in discovering yourself and your personal success.

Determine how much your friends, family and coworkers respect you by distinguishing between being respected because of money and fame and being respected because of the amount of trust and honor you have earned.

Record your goals in order to keep track of what you have accomplished over time. Being able to visualize what you have done and what you still need to do can be helpful in determining and evaluating your personal success.

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How to Measure Personal Success | Career Trend

The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore. ~Dale Carnegie ()

Early last year, I found myself sat on the balcony of an apartment in Malaysia. The view in front of me was amazing. There was a crystal clear ocean; palm trees dotted all over, a cold beer in my hand and my favorite music in the background. I took a sip of my beer, soaked it all in and realized something powerful I had made it professionally!

Six months earlier, I had set myself the target of running a location free business. I wanted to write and travel the world. Malaysia was the first stop for all of that. Which brings me full circle to this article. And how it can help you decide what you want both professionally and personally.Because that might sound like personal success to you; but its truly a professionalsuccessgoal that I set.

Let me explain

The two are not mutually exclusive which Ill come to a little later on but on a base level it breaks down like this

Think of them this way what you want to achieve at home andwhat you want to achieve at work.

Now your professional goals are always personal to you; which is where it can sometimes get confusing, and the waters get murky.

But your goals can only ever be personal to you. Because, well, theyre your goals.

Now I just said that the two are not mutually exclusive. And, theyre not. They have a direct impact on each other. The crossover is what professional success allows you to do in your personal life.

Let me use my Malaysia example as a reference point:

Personally, I always wanted to go to that part of the world. It was somewhere Id never been, and it was high on my bucket list of places.

Professionally, I never could. Getting time off work or having the money to do that sort of trip wasnt feasible at all.

So when my professional situation allowed me to go there, I was able to hit my personal goal of being there too.

You probably have things in your life right now where this crossover will occur:

You might be dying to get that promotion at work but its rarely for the money or the power its mostly for what it allows you to do in your own life.

I define myself by my own business. I built it from the ground up. But I built it for the lifestyle it allows me to lead.

Neither.

There are two things that come before you look towards personal or professional success:

That dictates which goal youre going to put the most emphasis on, for where you are in your life right now.

So, youve seen there is an overlap between Personal and Professional success and theyre quite often connected from the start.

But which one should get your focus?Well, that comes down to a few factors:

This isnt to say that youshouldntmulti-task and try to take on a couple of goals at a time. If you can manage that, thats fine. But if there is a big goal like, for example, going back to school and changing your career, or losing 50 lbs worth of weight, its going to be hard to manage them both.

So be careful which one you prioritize, and dont take on too much at once.

Like I said earlier, its all about what you what. And, well, whats going to make you happy.

And, both hinge on whether theyll make you happy.

Read this article:
The Difference between Personal and Professional Success

While the stimulus checks have started dropping into bank accounts and many creditors are offering relief on payments, those options may not be available to everyone or they may not be enough. That's why some people are turning to unsecured personal loans, often used for debt consolidation or home improvement projects, to cover emergency expenses.

While some lenders are offering low interest relief loans, others are tightening credit requirements for borrowers.

Here's what you need to know about taking out a personal loan during this crisis and whether or not one makes sense for you.

An unsecured personal loan is money borrowed from a bank, credit union or online lender that can be used for anything. The money is paid back in installments over time, usually with a fixed interest rate.

While many experts would caution against personal loans, which often come with high interest rates and fees, they could make sense in an emergency situation.

"Ideally, I'd hope people would use relief programs before taking on additional debt," said Justin Pritchard, a certified financial planner at Approach Financial, in Montrose, Colorado. "But if you absolutely need to borrow, a personal loan is not the worst way to go."

Since the loan is unsecured, you don't need to pledge collateral, which helps you avoid putting your home or other valuable assets at risk, Pritchard said. "Plus, you're not raiding your retirement savings and pulling money out of accounts like a 401(k)."

The fixed interest rate on most personal loans also allows you to know exactly how much you are paying each month and when you should pay off the debt, he said, so that is helpful when compared to credit cards, which often have variable rates.

But interest rates on personal loans can be very high as well, he warned.

"Some personal loan rates go above 30%, so you're not necessarily getting a great deal," he said. "Plus, there may be origination fees that add to your total borrowing cost, and you don't get a break on those if you pay off the loan early."

While various lenders will offer loans to those with credit scores ranging from bad to excellent, it is hard to find a lender that will issue a loan without a demonstrated ability to pay it back.

"Lenders look for the borrower's ability to repay that loan," said Elisabeth Kozack, managing director for lending at Marcus by Goldman Sachs. "Lenders want to verify the source of income you have. It could be employer income or it could be military income, retirement income, benefit income."

Your credit score and your past payment history will also factor into your loan offer.

When shopping for loans, she recommends determining the amount you need and what kind of monthly payments you want to make. And consider the interest rate together with overall benefits like lower fees or flexibility with payment dates.

"The interest rate generally will be higher for longer-term loans and lower for shorter-term loans," she said.

Think about a loan holistically, inclusive of fees and interest. An origination fee isn't necessarily a bad thing if you can get a lower rate and spend less on interest plus fees over the life of the loan.

"If you pay an origination fee, be sure to account for that in the amount you request," said Pritchard. "Lenders might reduce your loan proceeds to cover origination fees."

He recommends getting quotes from at least three different lenders. A diverse sample would include a local bank, a credit union and an online lender.

"Credit unions, with their community focus, might be most willing to work with you if your finances are less-than-ideal," he said.

If you have explored your options and are deciding between a personal loan or credit cards, check with your bank or credit union to see if they offer an economic relief loan, said Luis F. Rosa, certified financial planner at Build a Better Financial Future in Las Vegas.

"You have to take into consideration the fees and the interest rate once the 0% introductory APR ends," said Rosa, "but if it's a short-term fix, this might be a good option."

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Personal loans can help in a crunch. But read this before you apply - CNN

Abstract

Could mitigating persistent worries about belonging in the transition to college improve adult life for black Americans? To examine this question, we conducted a long-term follow-up of a randomized social-belonging intervention delivered in the first year of college. This 1-hour exercise represented social and academic adversity early in college as common and temporary. As previously reported in Science, the exercise improved black students grades and well-being in college. The present study assessed the adult outcomes of these same participants. Examining adult life at an average age of 27, black adults who had received the treatment (versus control) exercise 7 to 11 years earlier reported significantly greater career satisfaction and success, psychological well-being, and community involvement and leadership. Gains were statistically mediated by greater college mentorship. The results suggest that addressing persistent social-psychological concerns via psychological intervention can shape the life course, partly by changing peoples social realities.

For many people, a life well lived includes professional success, personal well-being, and engagement in ones community (1). What factors help people achieve these outcomes?

Certainly, resources and opportunities to develop important life skills (e.g., executive function) in childhood and adolescence contribute to adult success (24). However, access to resources does not automatically translate to better outcomes, partly because social-psychological concerns can impede peoples ability to use resources and pursue opportunities available to them (57). College, for instance, offers young people substantial opportunities for learning and the development of diverse skills and relationships (8). However, black and other racial minority students also enter college aware of the underrepresentation of their group in higher education and how the ways in which stereotypes and discrimination can shape the experiences of students from their group. Past research shows that this context reasonably evokes worries in students about whether they, or their group, can belong, a phenomenon known as belonging uncertainty (911). These worries can lead students to perceive common everyday challenges in college, such as exclusion from a social outing or receiving critical academic feedback, as confirming that they do not belong. This perception can become self-fulfilling. For instance, it may make students less likely to join student groups or to reach out to prospective mentors, undermining supports and achievement during college (9, 10, 12). Through this process, worries about belonging, rooted in a history of social disadvantage, can perpetuate racial inequality in higher education (see Fig. 1A for a conceptual model illustrating this process).

(A) For students from socially disadvantaged groups, awareness of negative stereotypes and a history and current reality of group-based disadvantage can give rise to worries about belonging. This belonging uncertainty may fester in the face of common everyday adversities in college and ultimately undermine important outcomes in college. (B) The social-belonging intervention offers students a nonthreatening lens through which to view daily adversities. It can thereby sustain engagement with school and improve the college experience, especially for students from disadvantaged groups who disproportionately bear the burden of belonging uncertainty. The present study examines whether the better trajectory fostered by the intervention can improve students outcomes after college (C) and whether gains in life outcomes are statistically mediated by postintervention grades and/or college mentorship.

Our understanding of this process derives largely from past field experimental research testing a targeted exercise called the social-belonging intervention. The intervention, described more fully below, is designed to mitigate worries about belonging in the transition to college. Although it is delivered early in college and lasts less than an hour, it has been shown to improve diverse outcomes in college, including academic performance, physical health, and well-being, for students from groups disadvantaged in higher education (13). Research on the social-belonging intervention draws on a tradition in psychology in which intervention field experiments serve both theoretical and applied functions (57, 14). First, they advance basic theory, in several ways. They assess the causal role of a specific psychological process within an ecologically valid context. In doing so, they can assess how this psychological process interacts with other processes in the world. For example, if an intervention that lessens belonging uncertainty improves outcomes by helping students access campus resources and relationships (10), then that suggests how psychological and structural processes interact to influence peoples lives. Furthermore, intervention field experiments can illuminate the contribution of psychological processes to social problems. If an intervention that lessens belonging uncertainty improves outcomes experienced by people from disadvantaged groups, then that means that belonging uncertainty contributes to those outcomes under status quo conditions as observed in the control group. Second, intervention field experiments offer valuable applied insights by evaluating the effectiveness of specific approaches to social problems.

If belonging uncertainty undermines the college outcomes of students from socially disadvantaged groups, then are these students less well-positioned to thrive after college? If so, could the belonging intervention enhance success not only during college, as shown in past research, but also subsequently? If adult benefits are observed, then what would explain how a 1-hour exercise early in college could alter the life course? To address these questions, we followed up with participants from the original randomized controlled trial of the intervention. At the time of the follow-up, it had been almost a decade since participants had taken part in the intervention and they were, on average, 27 years old. We examined their professional success, psychological well-being, physical health, and community engagement, with the prediction that black adults who had completed the intervention materials years earlier would show benefits on these outcomes relative to their counterparts who had completed the randomized control materials.

In an effort to interrupt the self-fulfilling nature of belonging uncertainty (11), the social-belonging intervention offers students a nonthreatening lens with which to make sense of common social and academic adversities in the transition to college (9, 13). To do so, it shares stories from diverse older students, who describe experiencing a range of everyday challenges to belonging in the transition to college and how their experiences improved with time. These stories thus represent challenges to belonging as normal in the transition to college, as temporary, and as due to the transition itselfnot as evidence of a permanent lack of belonging on the part of the self or ones group. The intervention is appropriate for school environments that, in fact, offer opportunities for belonging and the development of positive relationships for all students. It would not be expected to be helpful in contexts that are unmitigatedly hostile or that lack relevant resources.

The original randomized controlled trial of the social-belonging intervention included black and white students in their first year at a selective university. In a 1-hour immersive in-person experience, students read the intervention stories and reflected on their own experience in college in light of them [N = 92; (10)]. As previously reported, compared to multiple randomized control conditions and a nonrandomized campus-wide comparison group (N = 162 additional black students), this treatment raised black students grade point averages (GPAs) from sophomore to senior year, halving the racial achievement gap (10). Moreover, at the end of college, treated black students reported being more confident in their belonging, happier, and healthier than control peers. Subsequent studies have found academic benefits of the intervention in other populations and contexts (15, 16). These include multiple scaling studies with thousands of students, in which online versions of the intervention raised first-year completion rates and grades of students from socially disadvantaged groups (12).

How does the intervention help students succeed? Most hour-long experiences quickly recede from memory. Indeed, by the end of college, few students in the original experiment (8%) accurately recalled the treatment message (see the Supplementary Materials) (10). Likewise, few (14%) attributed any of their success in college to it. Thus, the gains do not hinge on the salience of an idea. The intervention also does not provide students objective resources or the kind of practice that is necessary for skill-building (4, 17). Rather, we propose another model for understanding life success, one that prioritizes how people make sense of and respond to their social context. From this perspective, a single targeted exercise that shifts how people make sense of their experiences at a key time may alter the recursive cycles that play out between an individual and their social context over time (5, 6). In the case of social belonging, awareness of disadvantage perpetuates inequality by seeding plausible but pejorative and self-fulfilling interpretations for everyday adversities. Yet, providing students a narrative for understanding adversities that saps them of their threatening meaning could sustain students engagement in the academic and social contexts of school. In turn, this engagement may help students build valuable relationships; reinforce confidence in their belonging; and provide cascading psychological, academic, health, and relational benefits during collegeresources that might support better life outcomes later (see Fig. 1B for an illustration of this process).

Consistent with this theorizing, daily diary measures administered in the first week after the intervention (i.e., in students first year of college) showed that the intervention lessened the degree to which black students suffered a drop in their feelings of belonging on days of higher adversity (10). They were less likely, it seems, to globalize the implications of adversities into the conclusion I dont belong here. This change in the interpretation of daily experiences appears to have had academic consequences. It statistically mediated the 3-year gain in black students GPA. Moreover, treated black students were more engaged on campus in the first week after intervention, for instance, emailing professors and attending office hours more (9). Subsequent studies have found that the intervention can lead students from socially disadvantaged groups to participate more in student groups, to develop more friendships on campus, and to be more likely to develop a mentor relationship in the first year of college (12, 16).

Could these improvements in college benefit their peoples adult lives after college? In our model, even as worries about belonging serve as a causal lever for change, they do not exist only in a persons head (5, 6, 18). First, they arise from the social context, particularly from awareness of societal disadvantage and the existence of negative stereotypes about ones group. In turn, they perpetuate disadvantage in students lived experience. Of particular importance, feelings of belonging uncertainty may lessen the likelihood that students form valuable relationships with mentors. Worried that they do not belong and with an interpretative lens that renders social adversities as global threats, students may avoid situations where these relationships could naturally form and not take the actions necessary to nurture them. While this could have consequences in students immediate circumstances, it could also affect outcomes over time. Mentors play a central role in fostering success and well-being for their mentees in and beyond school (19, 20), and may be especially meaningful for mentees from marginalized backgrounds whose ties to relevant social networks may be more tenuous to begin with (21). Testing this model, here, we examined whether remedying worries about belonging in the transition to college (via the social-belonging intervention) might help black students form mentor relationships that support their thriving long after college (see Fig. 1C).

To examine postcollege benefits, we asked participants from the original randomized controlled trial to describe their lives along four broad dimensions: career satisfaction and success, general psychological well-being, physical health, and community involvement and leadership. These outcomes are of inherent importance; they also mirror outcomes improved by the intervention in college (e.g., academic achievement, happiness, health, and participation in extracurricular activities). Table 1 shows the measures used to assess these dimensions. Although self-reported measures are limited in some respects, they capture how people experience their lives (22) and can be particularly appropriate when people are in diverse contexts, each with different metrics of objective success, as was the case here (e.g., participants were pursuing different careers and were at different stages of doing so). To capture different aspects of these broad life dimensions, we assessed each with multiple measures. We report results for both the individual measures (Fig. 2, with illustrative examples in the main text) and the composites formed from them (Fig. 2 and main text), as each is of interest. Given the breadth of the individual measures assessed for each dimension, the reliabilities for the composites vary. Narrower measures of secondary interest (e.g., participants connection with their alma mater) are reported in the Supplementary Materials (see table S9).

See Measures section of Materials and Methods for greater detail on the individual measures, including citations for established scales.

Primary outcomes 7 to 11 years after intervention by race and condition for composites and the individual scales that comprise them (see Table 1). Error bars represent 1 SE. The y axis represents the full range of each scale or, for variables without a fixed scale, a range that captures nearly all of the variation in responses. P < 0.10, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001.

To test the hypothesis that the social-belonging intervention would improve each main outcome for black participants, we focus on the most direct test: the simple effect of condition among black participants. We also report, and illustrate in Fig. 2, the treatment effect among white participants, the main effect of treatment, and the race condition interaction for each outcome. In the Supplementary Materials, we additionally report the main effect of race. We also provide results for analyses of the individual measures that comprise each composite and results from extensive robustness tests in the form of specification curves (see table S4). Consistent with the theory that belonging uncertainty would not undermine the outcomes of white participants (and thus an intervention addressing it would not benefit them), the simple effect of treatment among white participants was not significant for any of the main outcomes. After examining the direct effects of treatment on life outcomes, we conduct mediation analyses to test whether the observed treatment effects might arise, in part, from a greater development of substantive mentor relationships in college among black students.

Participants from the original social-belonging intervention trial (10) sample were recontacted 3 to 5 years after college graduation and invited to complete an online survey. They were told only that the survey extended a previous study related to the transition to college, which they had completed in their first year of college. Re-recruitment was high (87%; N = 80); achieved through repeated efforts and a $50 incentive; and did not vary by participant race, condition, or their interaction (see the Supplementary Materials, fig. S1, and tables S2 and S3). On average, respondents completed the follow-up survey 8.50 years after intervention delivery (SD = 1.22 years; range: 7.20 to 10.77 years).

All respondents had graduated from college. They were approximately 27 years old (Mage = 27.42, SD = 1.31; range, 25.43 to 30.97). Most were full-time employed (49%), full-time students (38%), or both (3%). Median annual household income was $40,000 to $49,999 (range: <$1000 to >$200,000). Fifty-six percent were in long-term romantic relationships, and none had children. These factors did not differ by race, condition, or their interaction (see the Supplementary Materials).

First, we examined participants professional lives. Eight and a half years after the treatment, black adults reported greater satisfaction and success in their careers in the treatment condition than in the control condition, B = 0.74, SE = 0.23, t(75) = 3.23, P = 0.002, d = 1.19 (see Fig. 2). To illustrate, black adults rated their potential to succeed in the future relative to their classmates 16 percentile points higher in the treatment condition than in the control condition (69th percentile versus 53rd percentile), B = 16.34, SE = 5.79, t(75) = 2.82, P = 0.006, d = 1.05. Whites showed the same pattern on the composite measure but nonsignificantly, B = 0.28, SE = 0.25, t(75) = 1.14, P = 0.26, d = 0.35. Thus, the main effect of condition was significant, B = 0.51, SE = 0.17, t(75) = 3.02, P = 0.003, d = 0.73, and the race condition interaction was not, B = 0.46, SE = 0.34, t(75) = 1.34, P = 0.18.

In some cases, people achieve professional success at a cost to well-being and health (23), for instance, if success requires exceptional self-regulation. There was no such trade-off here. On indices of general psychological well-being, black adults reported better outcomes in the treatment than in the control condition, B = 0.72, SE = 0.25, t(75) = 2.94, P = 0.004, d = 0.96. To illustrate, black adults rated their life satisfaction just above the scale midpoint in the control condition (M = 4.44, SD = 1.06, on a 7-point scale) but nearly a full point higher in the treatment condition (M = 5.41, SD = 0.87), B = 0.97, SE = 0.31, t(75) = 3.15, P = 0.002, d = 1.01. Whites showed no effect of treatment on the composite measure, B = 0.06, SE = 0.27, t(75) = 0.21, P = 0.84, d = 0.07. Because the treatment effect was so strong for black participants, the main effect of condition was significant, B = 0.39, SE = 0.18, t(75) = 2.14, P = 0.04, d = 0.50, and the race condition interaction marginally so, B = 0.67, SE = 0.37, t(75) = 1.83, P = 0.07. Notably, there was a significant racial inequality in the control condition; black participants reported significantly less well-being than white participants, B = 0.51, SE = 0.23, t(75) = 2.16, P = 0.03, d = 0.63. Treatment eliminated (directionally reversed) this disparity, B = 0.16, SE = 0.28, t(75) = 0.58, P = 0.57, d = 0.22.

Next, we examined self-reported physical health. Consistent with research that feelings of social connectedness are one of the strongest predictors of physical health (24), treatment had improved this outcome among black students at the end of college (10). However, at this more distal point, black participants reported directionally better health with treatment, but the effect was not statistically significant, B = 0.36, SE = 0.25, t(75) = 1.48, P = 0.14, d = 0.41. The effect was also nonsignificant for whites, B = 0.14, SE = 0.27, t(75) = 0.52, P = 0.60, d = 0.23, and overall, B = 0.25, SE = 0.18, t(75) = 1.38, P = 0.17, d = 0.32, with a nonsignificant race condition interaction, B = 0.22, SE = 0.37, t(75) = 0.61, P = 0.54.

An important goal of college is to prepare people to join and lead new communities (25). At its heart, the belonging intervention addresses the opportunity to integrate into new communities, even when doing so is difficult at first. Therefore, we examined the extent to which participants reported substantial contributions to nonwork community groups (e.g., outreach/service, cultural/identity, and political organizations) after college. Black adults reported greater involvement and leadership with treatment, B = 1.15, SE = 0.51, t(75) = 2.27, P = 0.03, d = 0.66. For example, 68% of black adults in the treatment condition, but only 35% in the control condition, reported having held at least one leadership position outside of work, B = 1.40, SE = 0.66, z = 2.12, P = 0.03, Odds Ratio (OR) = 4.06. In particular, the treatment increased black adults contribution to outreach/service and cultural/identity organizations (see table S5). White participants also showed a trend toward greater community involvement and leadership, B = 0.80, SE = 0.55, t(75) = 1.44, P = 0.15, d = 0.57, so the main effect of treatment was significant, B = 0.98, SE = 0.38, t(75) = 2.60, P = 0.01, d = 0.64, and the race condition interaction was not, B = 0.35, SE = 0.75, t(75) = 0.47, P = 0.64.

How could a 1-hour exercise cause lasting gains in broad life outcomes? Undoubtedly, life outcomes unfold dynamically over years and are multiply mediated by an array of psychological, behavioral, structural, and relational processes (see Fig. 1). For the present study, we examined the potential role of two factors, postintervention college grades and college mentorship. Both represent important aspects of the better experience fostered by the social-belonging intervention in college. Furthermore, both may be understood as reflecting the cumulative effects of diverse processes in college (see Fig. 1).

First, although black students attained higher postintervention grades with treatment (10), grades only modestly predicted black adults career success (r = 0.38, P = 0.03), well-being (r = 0.23, P = 0.18), and community involvement (r = 0.35, P = 0.05) in bivariate correlations (see table S6A). Furthermore, results from mediation analyses indicated that postintervention grades did not explain intervention effects on any of the life outcomes examined. Zero was included in the confidence interval (CI) for the indirect effect in the bootstrapped mediation analysis for each outcome, although the mediation analysis approached significance for community involvement and leadership (see table S7).

Second, black adults reported greater mentorship during and after college with treatment, B = 0.67, SE = 0.21, t(75) = 3.16, P = 0.002, d = 1.16 (see Fig. 3A). To illustrate, the percentage of black adults who reported having developed an academic mentor during college was nearly twice as high in the treatment condition (84%) than in the control condition (43%), B = 1.94, SE = 0.76, Z = 2.56, P = 0.01, OR = 6.93. The percentage who reported that this mentorship continued after college was also much higher with treatment (37%) than without (4%), B = 2.55, SE = 1.13, Z = 2.26, P = 0.02, OR = 12.83. Whites showed a trend in the same direction on the composite measure, B = 0.34, SE = 0.23, t(75) = 1.46, P = 0.15, d = 0.45, so the main effect of condition was significant, B = 0.50, SE = 0.16, t(75) = 3.21, P = 0.002, d = 0.76, and the race condition interaction was not, B = 0.33, SE = 0.31, t(75) = 1.06, P = 0.29.

(A) Self-reported college mentorship by race and condition. Error bars represent 1 SE. (B) For black participants, college mentorship mediated intervention effects on composite career satisfaction and success and on general psychological well-being. Mediation was observed ( = 0.05) if the bootstrapped 95% CI of the indirect effect did not include zero, which occurred in both cases. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, and ***P < 0.001. ns, not significant.

For black participants, the composite mentorship measure robustly predicted career success (r = 0.54, P < 0.001), psychological well-being (r = 0.65, P < 0.001), and community involvement (r = 0.38, P = 0.01) in bivariate correlations (see table S6A). Of note, these correlations were of smaller magnitude and did not reach significance for white participants (0.08 rs 0.29) [see table S6B; see also (21)]. Furthermore, results from mediation analyses indicated that the composite mentorship measure statistically mediated the gains in career success and psychological well-being for black adults. Zero was not included in the CI for the indirect effect in the bootstrapped mediation analysis for either outcome (see Fig. 3B). For community involvement and leadership, the mediation analysis approached but did not reach significance (see table S7).

Although these results are correlational, they are consistent with our theorizing. Participants open-ended comments illustrate their experiences with mentors in college. One black participant (control condition) wrote, I wouldnt say I received any mentorship at [school] - not for lack of interested professors, but I didnt really seek it. Another (treatment condition) wrote, The first semester of my freshman year was very difficult for me. I was struggling academically, didnt feel like I fit inI began to spend more time speaking with my freshman counselor. We really bonded, and she helped me to realize that I did belong at [school]. Thanks to her, I was able to connect better with my peers and perform better academically. Weve kept in touch ever since. Table 2 provides the full text of these and other responses. They illustrate the importance of mentors to students development and the difference in black participants experiences by condition.

Illustrative examples of participants open-ended descriptions of their most meaningful mentor relationships during college.

The present study shows that a brief intervention to address worries about belonging in the transition to college improved major life outcomes for black Americans 7 to 11 years later. The outcomes improved by the interventioncareer satisfaction and success, psychological well-being, and community involvement and leadershiprepresent key aspects of a life well lived. The magnitude of the effects on well-being is particularly noteworthy, given the past findings that many kinds of interventions, including therapy (26), and major life events such as marriage, divorce, and unemployment (27), have quite modest effects on well-being. Moreover, we provide evidence for one way the intervention seems to have helped black adults thrive: by helping them connect to a valuable resource in their college environment, a mentor.

A major contribution of this study is to highlight a social-psychological barrier to the thriving of black Americans: belonging uncertainty. Without an intervention to address uncertainty about belonging in the transition to college, our results indicate that black students ended up with worse outcomes in adulthood than they, and their postsecondary context, had the potential to achieve. Opportunities to form consequential, lasting relationships with mentors went unrealized. Lower rates of professional success and personal well-being followed.

The results underscore the importance of mentors in college. Relationships with mentors, not grades, mediated the long-term gains. Yet, the intervention was not a mentorship program in which students were assigned a mentor by college administrators. Instead, the intervention lifted a psychological obstaclepersistent group-based worry about belonging, rooted in awareness of social disadvantageto allow students to develop, on their own, authentic relationships of significance that, in many cases, lasted well past college graduation (28). Such student-initiated relationships may be more meaningful and garner greater commitment from both students and mentors (29). The results suggest the value for institutions of assessing and addressing disparities in the organic development of social ties on campus, especially by examining the structures, opportunities, and psychological processes that foster or inhibit the development of student-initiated mentor relationships.

Although mentor relationships statistically mediated the lasting gains of the intervention in this context, the intermediary factor by which a belonging intervention improves distal outcomes may differ elsewhere (13). For instance, at colleges with lower persistence rates, graduation may be the most important predictor of later life success (although mentors may also facilitate this outcome), a milestone toward which the belonging intervention can facilitate progress (12). In middle school, interventions to reduce psychological threat can yield lasting gains (e.g., increasing college-going) because short-term academic gains fostered by the intervention can help students enter more advanced academic tracks (18). While the mechanism that gives rise to lasting gains may differ in each case, an important lesson is that the subjective can become objective. A new way of thinking afforded by a psychological intervention concatenates through self-reinforcing processes to improve the objective reality of peoples lives (57).

Why did the treatment fail to improve the health outcomes of black adults when it had done so years earlier in college (10)? Perhaps the initial health benefits faded with time. Alternately, perhaps the present study was underpowered to detect health benefits, a possibility made more likely by the heterogeneity in our participants lives after college. The end of college is a relatively homogeneous and uniformly stressful context (30), which may have increased our ability to detect effects at that point. After college, factors beyond the reach of the intervention may have a relatively larger impact on health, such as the availability of health care or the idiosyncratic timing of occupational stress. If power is the key issue, then more sensitive measures, such as measures that go beyond self-report assessments, or more distal measures when greater health issues have arisen may again reveal differences.

In its focus on the psychological determinants of life success, the present study invites comparison to classic research on major structural reforms that can improve life trajectories, such as increasing opportunities for early childhood education (31). Bringing these areas together, it is essential to ensure both that opportunities are available and that people make sense of these opportunities in ways that promote success. Structural investments are often necessary to support positive life trajectories (3, 31). Yet their full benefit will not be realized if psychological barriers such as doubt about belonging get in the way. Although our study focused on college students, the mutual dependence between individual psychology and social structure is broadly applicable. Where else do the reasonable ways people make sense of themselves and their situation impede them from taking full advantage of opportunities and resources available to them (5, 32)? Where are people confident and ready to learn, to connect, and to grow but necessary structures or opportunities are inadequate for them to thrive?

As the present study followed up on the only social-belonging intervention whose participants have reached their late 20s, our sample size was constrained by the original study. In addition, for many reasons, it is often difficult to achieve large samples at distal assessments. Despite this, we were able to retain 87% of the original sample.

Notably, the magnitude of the treatment effects reported here may represent an upper bound, as all participants attended a single, well-resourced college and the intervention was an intensive, in-person experience, albeit a brief one. An open question, and an important direction for future research, involves boundary conditions: In what kinds of school contexts are treatment benefits more or less likely (16, 33)? For instance, how might the belonging intervention function in less selective institutions with lower graduation rates, or in majority-minority institutions where belonging concerns, may differ (12)? In general, we expect the greatest benefits in settings where belonging uncertainty constitutes a barrier to successwhere there are resources to succeed, and genuine opportunities to belong, yet negative stereotypes and a history of group-based disadvantage lead students to question their belonging. Conversely, the intervention is likely to have limited benefits in contexts where genuine opportunities to belong are lacking and/or where resources are sorely lacking, as this could undermine the ability of students to act productively on the new way of thinking afforded by the intervention. For instance, if a context lacks opportunities to cultivate mentors, then outreach from students will not meet with success. And we would expect later life course benefits of the intervention when it helps students accrue benefits in collegesuch as an outlook on adversity, a credential, and/or relationshipsthat perpetuate positive outcomes in the next stage of their lives.

When people do not thrive, it can seem that they lack essential skills or that their context lacks of opportunity. However, black participants in our sample were academically prepared and attended a well-resourced university. Still, their thriving as both students and adults was impeded by a persistent uncertainty about their belonging in college. The results highlight the potential, already present in at least some individuals and some institutions, to achieve substantially better outcomes. This potential can be hidden yet realized if institutions anticipate and proactively address overriding social-psychological concerns that shape individuals lives (32, 34). In illuminating this dynamic, our findings highlight a psychological mechanism by which a history of sociocultural disadvantage can perpetuate inequality to new generations and how this process can be interrupted with targeted and timely intervention.

The present study examined effects of the social-belonging intervention, particularly for black participants, on major life outcomes after college. The design of the original study was a 2 (condition: control or social-belonging intervention) 2 (race: black or white) between-subjects experiment. The follow-up study preserved the same design, and no new manipulations were introduced. We obtained human subjects approval from the Stanford University Institutional Review Board (IRB) and followed ethical guidelines in conducting this research. The original study procedures, including the sampling procedure, random assignment to condition, and intervention and control materials, are described in detail in the Supplementary Materials for the report of college outcomes (10).

The original intervention study took place at a selective university in the United States. Its selectivity is illustrated by the high college entrance exam scores of the study participants. Overall, black participants had an average SAT-Math + Verbal score of 1399 on a 1600-point scale, and white participants had an average score of 1500. At the university, black students were a numeric minority, representing between 5 and 15% of the undergraduate student body at the time of the study.

Despite its selectivity, there were large racial disparities in achievement at the university. This was illustrated in the previously published study reporting college outcomes (10): Black students in the control condition had GPAs for the final 3 years of college that were almost a third of a letter grade lower than the GPAs of their white peers.

To recruit participants, we obtained contact information from the alumni directory at students alma mater and from social media (e.g., LinkedIn). We first sent all participants for whom we had a physical mailing address a letter inviting them to participate in the study. This letter was followed by subsequent phone, email and social media outreach. Final attempts to reach participants included a postcard to their home address from college. Recruitment took place over a 19-month period. The first participant responded on 29 June 2012. We closed the survey on 30 January 2014. Most participants (64%) took part within the first 5 months of study recruitment (between 29 June 2012 and 1 December 2012). Participants were offered a $50 Amazon gift card as compensation.

As noted, the study was described to participants as extending a previous study they had taken part in during their first year of college on the transition to college. No additional information on study hypotheses, methods, or results was provided.

Participants completed the study between 7 and 11 years after the initial study participation. At this time, most participants were 26 to 29 years old. All had earned their undergraduate degree from the selective private university, most within 4 years of initial matriculation, consistent with the high on-time graduation rate at the institution.

At follow-up, nearly all participants identified themselves as being full-time employed (49%), full-time students (38%), or both (3%). Common career fields were health care (23%), law (20%), technology/engineering (14%), and education (10%). Of the eight participants who did not identify themselves as full-time students or full-time employed, two reported being full-time homemakers, one was studying full-time for the bar exam, one had just left a full-time job to start a company, one was finishing a second bachelors degree (part-time) while looking for a job, and three did not provide more information about employment. The median annual salary was $40,000 to $49,999 (mode, less than $1000; range, less than $1000 to more than $200,000). The median household income was also $40,000 to $59,000 (mode, $30,000 to $39,999; range, less than $1000 to more than $200,000). Among those not attending school full-time, the median annual salary was $50,000 to $59,000.

To help characterize the sample, we also asked participants about their home life and civic engagement. Overall, half (56%) of participants reported being in a long-term romantic relationship, including marriage. None had children. Most (84%) had voted in the most recent U.S. Presidential Election, and very few (5%) had ever been convicted of a crime. See table S1 for demographic factors reported by race and treatment condition. As the table illustrates, none of these factors differed significantly by condition or the interaction between race and condition.

Below, we briefly describe each measure that contributed to the composites, describe how composites were constructed, and provide correlations between scales that formed composites. The one variable not assessed via the survey was postintervention grades, which we tested as a mediator. For this variable, we used the primary postintervention academic outcome from the end-of-college follow-up (10): sophomore-through-senior year GPA earned during normal academic terms (i.e., excluding summer courses), obtained from official university records during the previous wave of the study.

An annotated version of the Survey Instrument is available on Open Science Framework (osf.io/xz3hr). The survey instrument document provides the full text of primary and secondary measures and accurately represents the order in which measures were assessed. Below, we include the page number(s) on which particular measures can be found.

Given the nature of the study and the extensive efforts required to reach the sample, the survey instrument included a wide variety of questions. The present report focuses on participants reports along four major indices of adult thriving: career satisfaction and success, psychological well-being, physical health, and community involvement and leadership. It also examines college mentorship as a mediator of adult thriving. In the Supplementary Materials, we additionally report results for narrower outcomes of secondary interest (participants connection to their alma mater, clinical measures of mental health, social support and loneliness, perceived social status, and cognitive accessibility of stereotypes and self-doubt) and for variables related to racial attitudes and experience on which we did not expect intervention effects. Measures not included in the present report assessed participants experiences during or before college, other outcomes on which we did not expect intervention effects (e.g., grit and primary appraisal of stress), open-ended questions, and outcomes we may report elsewhere (e.g., current friendship networks).

The career satisfaction and success composite comprised four measures, which were standardized and then averaged to create the composite ( = 0.77) (see Table 1).

1) Job satisfaction. Job satisfaction was measured with eight items on or rescaled to be on a 1 to 6 scale ( = 0.89). Items were drawn or adapted from various career satisfaction or related scales (35, 36). We had originally intended to include a ninth item focused on job burnout (I feel emotionally drained from my work). However, the item reduced scale reliability and did not load on the same factor as the other items, so it was dropped (see pp. 5758 of the Survey Instrument).

2) Workplace belonging uncertainty. Workplace belonging uncertainty was measured with two items [adapted from (10)]. We included a third item (When something good happens, I feel that I really belong at my workplace) but, consistent with past practice (10), we dropped it because of its low correlation with the other items. Both items were assessed on a 1 to 6 scale (r = 0.52) (see p. 45 of the Survey Instrument).

3) Perceived success. Perceived success was measured with one item [adapted from (9)]. It asked participants to compare their success to date to the success of other students from their alma mater who graduated in the same year using a percentile ranking between 0 and 100 (see p. 45 of the Survey Instrument).

4) Perceived future potential. Perceived future potential was also measured with one item [adapted from (9)]. It asked participants to compare their potential to succeed in the future to the potential of other students from their alma mater who graduated in the same year to succeed in the future using a percentile ranking between 0 and 100 (see p. 44 of the Survey Instrument).

The psychological well-being composite comprised three measures, which were standardized and then averaged to create the composite ( = 0.76) (see Table 1).

1) Subjective happiness. Happiness was measured with the four-item Subjective Happiness Scale (37). All items were assessed on a 1 to 7 scale ( = 0.89) (see pp. 2526 of the Survey Instrument).

2) Life satisfaction. Life satisfaction was measured with five items. Four items were drawn from the Satisfaction With Life Scale [SWLS; (38)]. The fifth was based on a single-item life satisfaction measure widely used in national panel studies (39). The single-item measure was originally on a 10-point scale but was rescaled to 1 to 7 so as to be on the same scale as the SWLS and then averaged with the other four items ( = 0.80) (see pp. 2224 of the Survey Instrument).

3) Perceived stress. Following past research (16), we were primarily interested in how overwhelming people found stress they experienced (secondary appraisal) rather than how much stress people reported they experienced (primary appraisal). Therefore, we measured perceived stress with the short version of the Perceived Stress Scale (40). All items were assessed on a 1 to 5 scale ( = 0.85) (see pp. 2829 of the Survey Instrument).

The physical health composite comprised three measures, patterned on those used previously with this sample (10). The three measures were standardized and then averaged to create the composite ( = 0.71) (see Table 1).

1) Self-assessed general health. We assessed self-reported general health with the five-item general health component of the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form Health Survey (41). All items were assessed on a 1 to 5 scale ( = 0.80) (see p. 35 of the Survey Instrument).

2) Sick days in the past 3 months. Participants reported how many sick days they had taken from work or school in the past 3 months (open response) (see p. 36 of the Survey Instrument). There were a few outliers on this measure. In primary analyses, we used a nontransformed version of the variable. However, we also created a winsorized version of the variable. The specification curve results (discussed below) indicated that the results were substantively similar regardless of which variable was used.

3) Doctor visits in the past 3 months. Participants reported how many times they had visited the doctor in the past 3 months (open response) (see p. 36 of the Survey Instrument). There were a few outliers on this measure. In primary analyses, we used a nontransformed version of the variable. However, we also created a winsorized version of the variable. The specification curve results (discussed below) indicated that the results were substantively similar regardless of which variable was used.

The community involvement and leadership composite comprised two measures (r = 0.24), which were summed to create the composite (see Table 1).

1) Number of domains very involved in. On a three-point scale (1 = not at all, 2 = some, and 3 = a lot), participants were asked about the extent of their involvement in activities related to eight nonwork domains since earning their undergraduate degree. The domains are listed in table S5. We counted the number of domains in which participants reported a lot of involvement [see (42)] (see p. 62 of the Survey Instrument).

2) Number of domains with leadership role. For each domain in which participants reported at least some involvement, they were asked whether they had held a leadership position in that domain since earning their undergraduate degree. We counted the number of domains in which participants reported having had a leadership position (up to eight) (see p. 63 of the Survey Instrument).

The college mentorship composite comprised four measures, which were standardized and then averaged to create the composite ( = 0.69) (see Table 1). As these measures are retrospective, it is possible that it assesses only how much mentorship participants recalled, not how much they experienced. However, the pattern of results accords with immediate postintervention daily diary measures of greater engagement with faculty from the same sample (9) and with greater contemporaneously reported mentor development in the first year of college in other trials (12).

1) Had a general mentor in college. Participants were asked whether they had someone to whom you could turn for support, advice, or encouragement when you faced a problem or difficulty in or out of school in college (binary yes or no) (see p. 17 of the Survey Instrument).

2) Had an academic mentor in college. Participants were asked whether they had someone who [took] a special interest in you and your academic development in college (binary yes or no) (see p. 18 of the Survey Instrument).

3) Whether academic mentorship continued after college. Participants were asked when they had received mentorship from the person(s) they identified as their academic mentor. Options included each semester of college and mentorship continued after graduation. Selecting yes to the postcollege time period was coded as 1 (otherwise 0) (see p. 20 of the Survey Instrument).

4) Importance of most important mentorship. After answering the other mentorship questions, participants were asked to write an open-ended prompt to the question, Describe the nature and quality of the most meaningful mentorship you received at [school]. Then, they were asked to rate the importance of this mentorship (1 = not very important and 5 = extremely important) (see p. 21 of the Survey Instrument).

Primary outcomes. Outcomes were analyzed using linear or logistic regression, as appropriate, with intervention condition (control or social-belonging treatment) and participant race (black or white) as contrast-coded between-subjects factors. To test the robustness of the results, we conducted a specification curve analysis (43) for each main outcome and the mentorship composite. As discussed in the Supplementary Materials (see table S8), analyses indicated that results were robust across various plausible model specifications and not likely due to chance. Thus, the main text reports results from the most parsimonious models without covariates.

Mediation analyses. To conduct the mediation analyses, we used the structural equation modeling R package lavaan (44). As predicted by theory and consistent with past findings (9, 10) treatment effects emerged only or especially for black participants. Thus, we only included black participants in the mediation analyses. Analyses of postintervention grades controlled for preintervention grades. We specified a 95% CI and 10,000 resamples. We considered mediation to be observed ( = 0.05) if the resulting 95% CI of the indirect effect did not include zero.

Data. All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Additional data are available from authors upon request and, if needed, IRB approval.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.

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