Mentra: Creating a Neurodiversity Employment Network, w/ Jhillika Kumar | EDB 281
Mentra CEO & co-founder Jhillika Kumar discusses their work creating a platform to connect neurodiverse talent with employers.
Jhillika Kumar is the co-founder and CEO of Mentra, a Georgia Tech graduate, and honorary degree recipient, and previous Grace Hopper Keynote speaker for neurodiversity empowerment. Jhillika’s passion for neurodiversity advocacy stems from her life experiences growing up as the sister of a nonspeaking autistic individual named Vikram and ADHDer herself. After 27 years of being unable to communicate his thoughts, Vikram learned how to type through an accessible letterboard. Uncovering his vast intelligence and eloquence inspired Kumar her to search for a solution to the need to empower those who society has overlooked.
At Georgia Tech, Kumar partnered with Conner Reinhardt to found Mentra: the world’s largest neurodiversity employment network. After understanding the innate barriers to employment through community driven research, Mentra focused on the candidate experience to built a tech-platform that intelligently matches neurodiverse individuals with inclusive companies that value their unique abilities.
For more about Mentra:
https://www.instagram.com/mentrateam/
https://twitter.com/mentrateam
https://www.facebook.com/mentra.me/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mymentra
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FULL TRANSCRIPTION
DR HACKIE REITMAN (HR):
Hi, I’m Dr. Hackie Reitman, welcome to another episode of Exploring Different Brains. And today I have the privilege of renewing acquaintance with the great Jhillika Kumar, the head of Mentra. Jhillika is going to tell you all about it. Jhillika, you do so much for so many thanks for taking some time to be with us.
JHILLIKA KUMAR (JK):
It’s a pleasure. I’m excited. Great to see you again.
HR:
Likewise, why don’t you tell our audience a little about Mentra and how it got started?
JK:
Absolutely, yes. So, I, first of all, am the little sister of a non speaking autistic individual named Vikram. And growing up with him, always, you know, wondered why I had the opportunity to get an education to get, you know, to go overseas to work at a job. And simultaneously, you know, he was oftentimes, you know, staying at home didn’t really have the same opportunities was very parent dependent, didn’t have that sense, you know, that income that comes, and that independence that comes with income. And in college, I was studying at Georgia Tech, and I was doing research with the nonspeaking community, as well as folks who are above the age of 18, and 22. And realize that, you know, while there’s all this focus, and there’s an amazing amount of work being done in the early intervention, sort of young, younger ages of the community, we were looking at, okay, well, what happens after, you know, because a lot of times the government’s support systems sort of fall off. And there’s that cliff at the age of 22. And, you know, most of an individual’s life is usually spent, you know, in work, finding employment and finding their career, however, for this community, because there’s, you know, specifically for Neurodivergence with it 80%, under an unemployment rate, we realized there was all these systemic barriers to actually getting to finding employment. And if they, the individual does find employment, it’s oftentimes not, you know, tapping into their fullest potential, it’s under employment. And that’s where we decided, well, can we, you know, understand this community, while enough, do a lot of research and figure out what’s the data, you know, around all of the holistic factors. So it’s not just, we’re not just evaluating by work experience or education, we’re looking at, you know, someone’s natural strengths, their inclusion essentials, their environmental sensitivities, their you interested in the, in their finding their career, their special interests, even, and merging all of that together to find that ideal job. So that’s, and, you know, after going on this journey, and sort of learning about, you know, technologies and tools that could enable my brother to communicate, I’m realizing that he actually is, you know, brilliant, and he himself wants to find employment and find that fulfillment in through his career. So, you know, it all kind of goes around sort of, you know, full circle for able to empower neurodivergence across the world to find employment, maybe we can change the minds of employers to become inclusive enough for individuals who might not speak or might who might need accommodations, like a communication partner, or someone with them on the job. So yeah, that’s been about how it started a few years ago, while we were still in school.
HR:
How’s your brother doing now?
JK:
Oh, he’s great. I was just talking to him right before this. And I have a quick few moments to just say, hi, he’s, you know, he is still living with my family, he is typing more frequently, now that we found the right tools, you learn to type only at the age of 27. So up until then, you know, there was minimal communication. And now he’s writing, you know, his favorite hobby is poetry. That’s what he loves. So he’s always writing poems, and we’re always trying to figure them out. And then, because, you know, he, he writes with, I have to take a dictionary to look up the words that he uses. He’s so eloquent. And he’s, you know, he’s looking to make his mark on the world. So he’s doing great. Yeah, thank you for asking.
HR:
How is Mentra doing outside of your brother?
JK:
Yeah, oh, it’s been a roller coaster, for sure. I mean, we were in college, we did our research. And then I graduated, and my co founder and I, Connor, sort of our been pushing Mentra, full steam. So we have six team members on board, who are all neurodivergent, and advocates in the community. And we built this platform. It’s basically like LinkedIn for the neurodivergent community. We realized that indeed, and LinkedIn don’t really work or collect that data. So we figured let’s just build something from the ground up that’s built with accessibility on the ground floor. And it’s doing great. We have 2000 neurodivergent, you know, job seekers who’ve signed up onto the platform. We’re speaking with companies to hire these incredible individuals across various industries. So we’re looking at, you know, all the way from, you know, health care and the creative fields to technology and you know, the design and also the finance and healthcare, you know, a wide range of industries that were looking to bring their divergence into. So, yeah, I mean, we’re going full steam or next step for us is, you know, bringing the employers on board, we have around seven so far, and we’re looking to get, you know, quadruple, exponentially grow that to be neurodiverse. You know, employers across the country, are hiring neurodivergence into all of their roles. So they’re making their entire hiring process neuro inclusive, that’s the goal.
HR:
So for a neurodivergent individual out there who might be watching this, and is a bit scared to apply for a job, what advice would you have for them?
JK:
Advice for individuals who are scared to apply for jobs? Yeah. Well, I would say, you know, there is this push, and this movement happening right now in the community, where, you know, self advocates are speaking about it. And with both outside organizations and within organizations. And, you know, as someone who spent two years in corporate America before working on Mentra full time, there was sort of this, there’s this, you know, folks are coming out, they’re sharing their stories, there’s employee networks that are being built their support systems that are being put in place, I mean, it’s, it’s not perfect, it’s gonna take a while for every company to embrace it. But there are, you know, people out there who are advocating for you championing you in the workplace. And, you know, it’s, I, there’s no need to feel, you know, what, you know, worried or scared, because I think unmasking in the workplace is sort of becoming a more, you know, common factor. And it’s not something that’s ostracized, it’s something that’s becoming more and more celebrated. So I would say, you know, there is a workplace that is right for you. And it’s just about finding, finding that and tapping into your fullest potential. So we’re here to help, you know, however we can, and, and, and bring those neuro inclusive employees directly to you so that you don’t have to go out and search for them and figure out, you know, are they really neuro inclusive? What are they really doing? And when we can make all of that very transparent?
HR:
How does our audience get in touch with you?
JK:
Yeah, well, our website is www.mentra.me. We, if you have any questions, you can always reach out to info@mentra.me. I’m also on LinkedIn, I can share the link below. And, yeah, I would say, you know, we have a passionate team. And we’re always open to feedback, we’ve built our entire platform with community driven design. So if there’s, you know, features that you would like for us to build someday, we hope for this to grow into sort of a network where you can be able to connect with companies that value your strengths, and job coaches, and voc rehab centers and sort of the whole ecosystem of employment services out there for neurodivergence that today are, you know, siloed sometimes, and we want to turn this into sort of a national, and even international global centralization of all of the, you know, resources and supports out there for neurodivergence in the workplace.
HR:
So Jhillika, I’m a neurodivergent individual and I want to utilize Mentra to help me on my journey – tell us how we go about that.
JK:
Absolutely. So when you think about think about Mentra, sort of a LinkedIn for the neurodiverse, right, so you go on to our website, you sign up, we do ask a few questions that you might have never seen before. Around, you know, your environmental sensitivities, what kinds of workplace work best for you what kind of team environments work best, best. And then once you go through that process, we automatically build what we call a mentor profile. And that’s basically like a next generation of resumes that are a whole lot more holistic, and don’t just cover you know, education and work experience, we go a lot deeper to really understand what are the strengths of the individual, what are the inclusion essentials they need to thrive? What are some work samples, any recommendations or courses they’ve taken that demonstrate proficiency. So we think about, you know, new and creative ways to demonstrate skills to employers. And then that’s exactly what gets shared with different companies. So, you know, once you create your profile, you’ll be able to see a dashboard with all of the jobs. And you can go in and sort of select what you like, select what you don’t like we learn from that our technology learns to get you better matches in the future. And we put you in front of employers so we make sure that all of the neuro inclusive employers are trained and are ready to tap into your strengths so you can do that at mentra.me
HR:
joke I know you’re a big fan of and proponent and champion of universal design. Do you want to speak about that a little bit?
JK:
Yeah, absolutely. Universal design is core to everything that we built, you know, the fact that you can design for someone who might be quote, unquote, an edge case, or someone who, you know, has a disability who that isn’t everyone, it’s the latest stat, which is constantly changing is, you know, one in every seven. And, you know, if you’re designing for that individual that makes life, you know, better for everyone. And we’ve seen that with a whole lot of inventions, including, you know, the telephone, closed captioning and subtitles, in movies, even SMS texts were created for someone, you know, who had here a hearing impairment. And so there’s a lot of, you know, creations that have shaped where we’ve come today that were designed for individuals, you know, with different forms of disabilities. And we were able to now, you know, take that and, and evolve, you know, all of society, you know, all of us benefit from phones and text messaging and subtitles, you know, how else can we watch, you know, Korean TV shows are all the things out there in different countries and world? So it’s, it’s been incredibly, you know, a huge aspect of how we’ve built our tool as well, because we’re saying, you know, there’s a hiring process that exists, it wasn’t necessarily built for those who think differently, what if we take that same process and build it from the ground up with universal design, and then you’re just making a platform that works better for everyone, you know, a platform that’s inclusive from the ground up, and you’re considering edge cases from the very beginning? And so that’s really our key tenant. Thanks for that question.
HR:
Chilika, you know, you and I were both lucky enough where we met to receive our honorary degrees from the wonderful institution Beacon College, which does so much for those of us whose brains are a little bit different. Tell us what are your thoughts on education in general? And also that Beacon college as an example?
JK:
Yeah, phenomenal question. I mean, there are so many different forms of education now emerging with technology. So, you know, the classic universities, and then we’ve also got, you know, YouTube and Coursera, and all of these amazing sort of upskilling platforms that are out there. And when we, you know, are working with employers, a big thing we say is, you know, someone might not have had the chance to have that traditional, you know, university education, and then get work experience in exactly the field that they want to go into. So you can’t, you know, judge someone’s, you know, competence or ability based on what they’ve done in the past. And so many individuals, especially in their early communities, don’t get the chance to, you know, go to college, or get a traditional degree. And so, there’s all of these other forms of, you know, you know, learning, you know, experiential learning, and upskilling programs online, and even schools that are designed particularly for, you know, folks who think differently with curriculums that are built for neurodivergence, and Beacon College is one of those schools, and I’m, you know, it’s amazing that they’ve built an entire sort of look, you know, ecosystem on their campus, where neurodivergents can leave their, you know, parents and go on to this campus and sort of find the freedom that comes with being on a college campus and have those independent skills. So that’s just wonderful. And then from like, education as a whole standpoint, I think, you know, even for example, my brother is taking a poetry poetry course called Maude Poe, by the University of Pennsylvania UPenn. And he could have never imagined, you know, getting an education from UPenn professors, but they’re astonished by his work. And he feels so great, you know, gratified by having that opportunity. And so it’s really making education accessible for everyone, because he can’t sit in a classroom and sort of, it’s difficult for him to sort of keep up with everyone, you know, he needs his breaks, he needs to walk around. So yeah, there’s education out there, that’s really shaping the way of how neurodivergent to learn and how they can eventually gain the skills in order to find fulfilling careers. So it’s really, really exciting.
HR:
I think, for you and your mission, I have to believe that COVID was a good break, for everything became virtual, and opened up all of these different educational and employment pathways. For those of us who are limited in many things besides mobility.
JK:
100% I mean, just the world going remote made it so much more accessible for folks who, for example, couldn’t leave their families or, you know, had their support systems and couldn’t travel to the city overseas or in another state to get a job. So it made the workforce you know, a whole lot more remote, which was great. And then just for our team, yeah, we were we you know, we grew up during the pandemic because now there’s all of this push for, you know, different now that we’re going back into the office or for many companies, how do we make it you know, accommodating of that. Everyone’s needs, whether that’s sensory rooms or quiet rooms, or having, you know, no uniform or, you know, textures and making sure folks are not allowed, or allowed sounds or blinking lights, you know, all of these things are being taken into consideration now that we’re going back into work, whereas before, if we were kind of going the same, well, you know, we don’t know, like, Would things really changed? Like it might have taken longer? It was really a catalyst for the neurodivergent community to have remote work opportunities for sure.
HR:
Jhillika tell me your thoughts on as you are a self advocate, as a neurodivergent yourself for ADHD – Okay. Why don’t you share with our audience some of the tools that you have found very helpful for yourself for ADHD?
JK:
Yeah, that is a great, great question. And something that, you know, I’ve sort of experienced and struggled with for a lot of my life, you know, and a lot of times, because my brother’s you know, condition was, you know, he’s on the spectrum, and he’s a nonspeaking individual, just being around, you know, him and his story and how that influenced, you know, my own neurodiversity story, and learning about that. It’s, it’s, it’s been, you know, really great, I think, in terms of what are some of the things that some of the tools that have helped me, I would say, you know, it’s interesting, because I have sort of built mechanisms around me to help, you know, be on top of things, I think, especially as responsibility grows, and pressure grows, having, you know, 500 to do lists, sticky notes, whiteboards all around me, kind of keeping me, you know, on, on top of everything, and making sure, I mean, I still, you know, some things fall through, and sometimes it’s hard to sort of, you know, especially be in person, sometimes it’s challenging, with, you know, not wanting to seem, you know, like, I’m not paying attention, or might be like, what other, you know, people see as rude, but really just trying to figure out how to process things and, you know, not necessarily not paying attention in any way. But yeah, it’s, I think, the mechanisms and tools to sort of stay focused, you know, take decompression break, express myself, I think, now that there’s a lot more talk about neurodiversity, it’s a lot easier to like, say, you know, hey, I need, you know, a few moments, it’s not you, it’s just I need, you know, some decompression time, and then I’ll come back to this. It’s, it’s been a lot more, you know, intuitive, it’s more easy to communicate with others, especially those in the community who understand. So, yeah, developing those communication techniques, as well as tracking techniques have been really helpful to kind of stay on top of things. And I will say, the remote world with, you know, Zoom have kept it so much easier. You know, things like even just giving eye contact, and you know, things like that we’re in person and, you know, different kind of signals in the room. And there’s so many things we’ve learned about that remote work has helped with. So that’s been helpful for me as well.
HR:
One of our wonderful interns, Ali Idris. Ali is a great self advocate for ADHD. And he’s going to be a great physician. He’s trying to get into medical school now. So he combined with the ADHD coach Brooks Schnittman. And they have on our website, on differentbrains.org Power Tools for ADHD. And they have so many episodes done already, which are, you know, brief 10 Minutes or less episodes, each one with a tool. And now they’re working on a Different Brains book for that. Because we’re into tools we want to give people instead of just a lot of words like would you do, this is a pathway to a job. This is what employers need, this is what you need. Let’s help get there. And if we start adding up, all the different neurodiversity is ADHD, autism and so much is a lot of differences out there. And I love the way you stress strength based — What are your gifts? What are your strengths? As opposed to just: what are your weaknesses?
JK:
Exactly, yeah, in fact, I heard a quote the other day that ADHDers are 300 times 300% more likely to start their own sort of organization or business and I just thought like, you know, as as so many aged years, you know, dropping out of school dropping out of work places has been you know, stomach issue and having the opportunity to like find you tap into the strength of that form, you know, that neuro diversity and then find a role where you can kind of, you know, have multiple threads in your head going on. and kind of steer each one of them forward has been really helpful. So I’m glad that you have that resource available. I definitely going to check it out after this.
HR:
Oh, well, I tell you what- our over 18 year old interns… because like you, what I found was, “oh, there’s so much for these kids to children”, and they need certainly need emphasis, but it seems like society inadvertently discriminated against the adults, like once you turn 18 get lost. So we start our internships at 18. And we’ve got a great group and have had and, and again, because of the virtuality of things, nowadays. Now we have interns in India, California, Texas, we’re all over the place England, it’s really been good. You want to repeat your website for those who want to follow up and see what you’re doing at Mentra?
JK:
Yeah, so it’s www.mentra.me. And to reach out to us, it’s info@mentra.me. And yeah, we’re on LinkedIn, and Instagram our growing platforms @mentrateam on Instagram. And, yeah, I think that’s how you stay in touch.
HR:
Yes, and what is one thing you would like all employers to know about neurodivergent talent.
JK:
So if I were to give an employer or employers a tip about working with, you know, neuro divergence, I would say, something that’s been really important is to that we’ve noticed, especially in, you know, whether it’s fortune 500 companies or small businesses is to really be kind, open minded, empathetic towards the differences of a, you know, an are divergent, who might, you know, perceive the world a completely different way. And, you know, understanding that there are, you know, strengths that lie within that individual whether, you know, might not appear from what meets the eye. And especially for someone, you know, like my brother and uncovering his strengths after 27 years of knowing him, I realized they didn’t really know him, because I didn’t have the translation layer, the the tool that would enable me to communicate and connect with him. And all along, I kept an open mind, you know, and wondered what what if he really is, you know, cognitively way more capable than I could have imagined. And, and I think that goes true for, you know, every nerd urgent individual that I’ve met, who has their own unique talents and strengths that the world really needs to tap into, because it is the type of different thinking that will evolve humanity, and that will solve all the greatest challenges of our day. And it’s just time for workforces to open their doors. And the way we can start is by being open minded and compassionate and caring, and, you know, changing our ways in order to accommodate and, you know, include the individual rather than expecting the individual to change, you know, we change as a society. So yeah, that would be sort of the advice I would share.
HR:
Well, Jhillika Kumar of Mentra, thank you so much for spending time with us and educating us here at Different Brains. And good luck with all of your future endeavors. And please keep in touch.
JK:
Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure.
