Doug and Yvonne Mendenhall on Research, Mentorship and the Gift of Possibility.
Doug and Yvonne Mendenhall say mentorship, exposure and confidence can help students discover what is possible.
For Doug and Yvonne Mendenhall, supporting the UW School of Pharmacy’s Nelson-Mendenhall Summer Scholars Program is about more than philanthropy. It is about creating the kind of opportunity that can shape a student’s future.
Doug Mendenhall knows that firsthand.
As an undergraduate, he joined a summer research program because he needed paid work and had always enjoyed lab science. What he found was far more than a job. Surrounded by graduate students and researchers, he began to see science not just as coursework, but as a field where curiosity, collaboration and discovery could lead to a meaningful career.
“It opened the door for me,” Doug said. “I participated in one when I was a student. At the time, I was putting myself through school, so I needed to do something that provided compensation. I had always liked lab work, but doing it every day, in that environment, changed the way I saw things.”
If this program opens a door for a student the way one opened for me, then it has done something very worthwhile.
That experience helped launch a career in pharmaceutical science and drug development. Today, Doug and Yvonne hope their support will help other students gain that same kind of exposure — the kind that builds confidence, broadens horizons and helps students better understand their own potential.
Their vision for the summer scholars’ program is not to steer students toward one specific path, but to give them the chance to explore. Through research experience, mentorship and collaboration, students can test their interests, build practical skills and learn more about how science can improve lives.
“I hope it opens doors for them,” Doug said. “I hope they see it as a transition point in their lives — a moment when they were exposed to things they did not know before.”
That kind of early exposure matters, he said, because many students make academic and career decisions before they have had a real opportunity to explore the possibilities available to them. Research experiences can help students make more informed choices — and sometimes reveal a future they had not yet imagined.
The Mendenhall’s also emphasize that the value of a summer research experience extends beyond technical training. Students learn how to work on teams, communicate ideas, interpret results and present their work with confidence.
In Doug’s view, those skills are essential in any scientific career.
“One of the hardest things to teach is how to work with other smart people,” he said. “Students need to learn how to connect, how to communicate, how to listen and how to understand other people — even those with different kinds of knowledge.”
For Yvonne Mendenhall, one of the clearest examples of the program’s impact came from meeting a student who had traveled from North Carolina to Seattle to participate.
The student arrived unsure of how her background and goals would fit, Yvonne recalled, but left with a stronger sense of confidence and possibility.
“She did not know exactly what she was getting into,” Yvonne said. “She was unsure whether her background and goals would fit. But she went. And what stood out to me was how empowered she seemed afterward.”
For the Mendenhall’s, that transformation reflects the deeper value of research opportunities. A single summer may not determine an entire career, but it can help students discover what excites them, what challenges them and what they want to pursue next.
Doug also believes those opportunities matter well beyond the individual student. Continued investment in research, he said, is essential to scientific progress and to preparing the next generation of researchers, innovators and health care leaders.
“Much of life is about hope,” Doug said. “Science is one of the places where hope becomes something you can work on.”
That belief also shapes how the Mendenhall’s think about mentorship. Doug credits mentors in his own life with giving him confidence, perspective and encouragement, and he sees supporting students now to extend that same gift to others.
In the end, the Mendenhall’s say the goal is simple: help students discover what is possible.
Maybe a student finds a passion for research and chooses that path. Maybe another realizes research is not the right long-term fit, but gains confidence and skills that will serve them elsewhere. Either outcome has value.
“What matters is that they had the chance to find out,” Doug said.