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Actionable ideas on how to promote diversity and inclusion in meaningful ways at the ground level (ie, day to day activities)

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I am a first gen. First to finish college directly out of high school, first MD, first PhD.

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As a person in a position of power who comes from a majority group (white male), I want to do what I can to promote inclusion while not turning into the “white savior” stereotype. What suggestions or resources do you have for treading this line?

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I am the first to graduate from undergrad and graduate school in my family.

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I am the first to graduate from undergrad and graduate school in my family.

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To learn - today has been the first that I have heard about the new nomenclature of co-conspirator / accomplice

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To learn - today has been the first that I have heard about the new nomenclature of co-conspirator / accomplice

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Learning definitions, i.e. what is an ally, how 1st gen is defined, resources/articles/ journals with more information

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Learning definitions, i.e. what is an ally, how 1st gen is defined, resources/articles/ journals with more information

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Center for First Generation Student Success 

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Center for First Generation Student Success 

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https://firstgen.naspa.org/why-first-gen/why-first-gen

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Resources for How to be an Ally to 1st Generation Trainees.pdf

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What Whites Can Do     [August 2021 Newsletter]

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What Whites Can Do     [August 2021 Newsletter]

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https://stirfryseminars.com/diversity-resources/newsletter/

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2018 Archive January 2018 March 2018 May 2018 June 2018 August 2018 October 2018 December 2018 2017 Archive January 2017 February 2017 March 2017 April 2017 May 2017 July 2017 September 2017 October 2017 December 2017 2016 Archive January 2016 February 2016 2015 Archive February 2015 April 2015 June 2015 July 2015 August 2015 November ...

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Advice for helping first-generation students succeed in graduate school (Inside Higher Education opinion piece)

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Advice for helping first-generation students succeed in graduate school (Inside Higher Education opinion piece)

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We cannot assume that just because they successfully navigated their undergraduate years they will smoothly sail through graduate training, write Arnaldo Diaz Vazquez and Natalie Lundsteen.

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First-generation graduate students, the first in their family to attend college and then go on to graduate school, can lack understanding about the whole process of obtaining a Ph.D. and how to navigate the research environment experience -- from the application and admission process through to career transitions and alumni status. The experiences of first-generation grad students can mirror the challenges that first-generation undergrads face, but graduate school certainly opens up new obstacles and unknowns.

We cannot assume that just because a first-generation student successfully navigated their undergraduate years they will smoothly sail through graduate training. From our experiences advising graduate students, we see that institutions recognize the challenges of first-gen undergrads, but they may not give as much attention to such concerns for such graduate students. Following are some of our thoughts for both first-generation students and the people in colleges and universities who support them.
For First-Gen Grad Students
If you are the first in your family to follow the path to a graduate degree, you may often feel totally alone, without people to ask for explanations or role models to look to for cues on how to navigate through graduate school. This is true not just in the learning that occurs in graduate school laboratories and research groups but also in all other aspects of graduate student life.

On the personal side, you might become confused about many aspects of graduate student financial processes, such as understanding income-tax ramifications or setting up health benefits. You may not recognize the importance of engaging in certain extracurricular activities or how and when to apply for fellowships and other funding. You may not know about campus support resources such as career development, a writing center or tutoring -- or, on the flip side, you might feel singled out for remedial support and feel like you are the only one being routed to tutoring.

You might feel a great deal of anxiety about being "the only one" -- whether it is being the only one to ask a question in group settings or being perceived as the only one who doesn't know something fundamental about graduate school. In graduate school, you may find yourself for the first time far away from the support system of family and friends, yet you may also feel the burden of needing to be a complete success in your graduate education, and thus unable to let your family see your struggles. Or when you do share with your family some of your concerns about graduate school, the realities of your new life may be completely unknown and incomprehensible to those who have not had the experience.

What first-generation graduate students need most of all for success is a sense of belonging, usually within a community. Essential aspects of community include mutual interdependence among members, connectedness, trust, interactivity, common expectations, shared values and goals, and overlapping histories among members. That translates in graduate school to finding camaraderie and means more than just a circle of friends -- it should be a safe space where you can ask anything and be yourself. Research culture prizes academic progress above all other things, and research is often an independent venture, but you cannot be successful without support from a community.

Finding community on a campus is important for all graduate students, and while informal groups and friendships certainly provide support for first-generation students, more formal or established groups can provide more information and strengthen and expand relationships. They can also offer safe spaces where you can ask anything and be yourself, as well as discover you're not the only one experiencing graduate school challenges.

The most common places for finding community and safe spaces are student-led organizations, student centers, or groups focused on wellness, gender, identity or diversity/multicultural affairs. These communities may focus on undergraduate student support on your campus, but they are at least a starting point to create or expand spaces for graduate students if they otherwise don't exist. In addition, on every campus, you can find faculty members or administrators open to sponsoring and supporting development of your group or organization if you wish to create a space for graduate students. Graduate career advisers, diversity educators and student affairs professionals are just a few of the people who might be able to help.

Be open and willing to take advantage of all mentors, beyond your academic supervisor. Build trust with the mentors you have, but also seek out new ones. Remember, they will not necessarily come to you and ask if they can mentor you.

Get to know staff as well as faculty, and from there develop relationships, especially with those who work in career development offices, writing centers or teaching/learning centers. Faculty and staff who serve as advisers to campus cultural organizations and clubs are another important resource. You will find a variety of role models, and if you are not aware of other first-generation students on your campus (although there probably are some), you will certainly find role models among graduate school alums who are out in the world doing amazing things and willing to speak with you.

Build your skills, confidence and self-efficacy. To advance in your graduate education and into a subsequent career, you'll certainly have to move out of your comfort zone. But the concept of community means you'll have a comfort zone to return to for catching your breath and regrouping when needed.

If you are an older graduate student, remember not everyone knows the things that you do. Once you have a seat at the table, bring more chairs -- encourage others and be attentive to new students who might be lost or uncertain. That said, you may also sometimes feel pressure to mentor and help others. Do work that supports other first-generation graduate students if and when you can, but it's OK if you would rather not or need to focus on other things at certain times.
For Those Working with First-Gen Grad Students
All members of an educational community have the responsibility to ensure training spaces center on respect, promote inclusion and diversity, value mentorship, and encourage professional and personal growth. We often don't share best practices around first-generation advising, or we assume colleagues in other offices are managing this.

You should recognize that mentoring is a two-way relationship and avoid making assumptions and generalizing when interacting with first-generation graduate students. Students who may appear self-sufficient or thriving may actually need support, and not all first-generation students should automatically be placed in tutoring or remedial programs. Individual Development Plans (IDPs) are a great tool for students to engage in self-reflection and then guide you in subsequent conversations to specific areas of concern for them.

If you already support first-generation students, share what you know with colleagues who may not have as much experience. If you are new to working with this population or haven't really considered it before, look to colleagues who can help you increase your expertise. You may be able to develop new knowledge and skills while providing essential support and information. If you were a first-gen graduate student yourself, sharing your story could empower others.

Think about resources on your campus that support graduate students, and recognize that first-generation students may find it difficult to locate and access them. Consider what it might be like to come to your campus without any knowledge of its culture and practices, and identify the avenues or resources where graduate students can look for help.

As you assess how your graduate students might navigate your campus, keep in mind concepts of accessibility and transparency of information. We often fall back on the assumption that our students are obviously intelligent and therefore should be able to find their way through processes and activities without guidance. If you have worked in your role for more than a few years, it's easy to forget how much information new students must absorb to assimilate into graduate school culture. So think back to what it felt like to be brand new to your role and environment. Many campuses offer "re-orientation" programming, a fantastic way to help students discover or re-engage with campus resources after the period of core courses or qualifying exams has passed.

Finally, consider if your campus offers communities or spaces where first-generation students might find support. If you can't think of any, work to create graduate-student-friendly group resources. If such groups or spaces do exist, and you do not already engage with them, reach out to their leadership or organizers to learn more.

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Advice for helping first-generation students succeed in graduate school (opinion)

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First-generation graduate students, the first in their family to attend college and then go on to graduate school, can lack understanding about the whole process of obtaining a Ph.D. and how to navigate the research environment experience -- from the application and admission process through to career transitions and alumni status.

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Words matter when working to make higher education more diverse and inclusive

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So you are looking for a checklist on how to achieve diversity in your program, discipline, or field. My rude awakening for you is that, unfortunately, no such list exists regardless of what you may have been told, and we must look somewhere we often avoid: inwards at ourselves.

Education is supposed to be a lifelong process. It is not something that ends with a terminal degree or accolade. In learning about our disciplines, those of us who are in STEM fields must not forget to learn about ourselves. We should set aside an hour, a minute or at least a mere moment to the intentional self-reflection that ensures inclusive practice. What are we doing to make the world a little bit better, who we are truly serving, and how are we upholding systems and structures that perpetuate injustice? As we learn more about who we are, what we value, and where we come up short, we do better at achieving the transformation in scientific pedagogy and research that we advocate for.

I am not just a doctoral degree holder. Not just an engineer. Not just well-educated. Not just a woman. Not just disabled. I am also a steady influencer, an organizer, an amateur baker, a daughter of immigrants, and a thoughtful consul. I bring all these identities with me in all the work that I do, scientific or not, and I cannot just turn them on and off like a light switch. These words describe parts of me, and while some of them might make you feel uncomfortable or sound irrelevant, to truly embrace the multitudes of our identity helps us relate to each other as scientists more meaningfully and represents the first step in making the scientific enterprise more representative of humanity. I try my best to remember that my lens is unique, my opinions matter, and my growth as a scholar and a human requires reflection.

We must name the systems of oppression that we are working against -- otherwise, we will never truly dismantle them. Privilege comes in many forms, has a clear meaning, and makes many academics squirm. We cannot deny that we, as well-educated scientists, have some measure of it by the sheer presence of those letters after our names. Our only recourse is to wield our privilege to aid others and reduce the gap between those who are and are not privileged. The words that we use to discuss this landscape of who we are, what we represent, and why we strive for equity should be as clear in purpose as they are in intent.

These essential words do mean different things to different people, as clarified by Nicholas Burbules, and ultimately, the responsibility lies with the speaker to clarify their vision of what diversity, equity, and inclusion mean to them in the specific context of their class, program, or institution. This is not a copy-and-pasted statement on every syllabus or blanket declaration of a commitment to diversity in the footer. Effective communication requires both sending the message and ensuring that the receiver understands what the message contained.

As a biomedical engineer, I have often been at the table with a medical doctor and an engineer who are using the same words to mean wildly different things or different words to mean nearly identical things. Let's discuss why we uphold these values to better identify different interpretations. Ask for feedback on what our community understands and how people interpret our words when we discuss these complex and nuanced ideas. At the very least, we will have more data about what our statements convey as they are currently phrased, and maybe, we will even build stronger bridges between each other.

If ever there was a doubt that words matter and that the way we use them to shape our understanding and our realities has tremendous power, the violent attack in January on our nation's capital has proved that to be true. In a world where it seems expertise and education have lost their import, no self-evident truths hold the pieces of our deeply fractured nation together. Reality has been shaped by social media misinformation, both positive and negative, claims of post-truth and post-race, and unsubstantiated lies. Not only have we experienced a devastating global pandemic and yet another demonstration of the influence of race on interactions between black people and the police, but more recently, we have also seen an insurrection of our democratic norms in real-time and in living color on video. Words matter. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow, words matter profoundly.

While we think that this truth only applies to political or institutional leaders, our own words matter, too. As scientists and educators, our realm of influence is notably more expansive than we typically consider. Our peers, our community members, our students, and our loved ones hear both our words and their subtext, subtle or overt. The words that we use in our daily lives have an enormous impact, and yet so often we wield them without remembering their true meaning. Equity. Inclusion. Diversity. Equality. Representation. Yes, these are indeed all different and distinct. But we use these words so frequently in our vernacular when discussing higher education that we have become numb to what they represent. We even shorten them into acronyms and further obscure them for the sake of conversational ease. This is problematic -- especially for scientists who claim to value and prioritize accuracy and precision in their day jobs.

We should actively reflect on whether our words in our inquiries are truly capturing our intent and portraying our vision of change to our audience. What are we trying to achieve; what do we learn from these results; and how do we hold ourselves accountable if we achieve or miss the stated mark?

Do you really mean Black people when you say people of color? Would a nonbinary person pass your checkbox when you say you seek gender diversity? What does that acronym URM actually stand for? Is it JEDI, EDI, DEI or something else altogether? Would systematically disenfranchised persons or persons excluded due to ethnicity or race better represent what you mean instead of minority or underrepresented?

Whatever you use, be specific and honest. And reflect on the why: for me, we do our research proudly and strive to enrich our diverse communities because beaucoup evidence shows positive outcomes for all involved and, of course, booming innovation.

Remember, now and forever, that we are talking about people. Human beings. Individuals with full and rich lives. Just as we do not warm to one-dimensional characters in our novels and movies, we cannot distill real people down to a single component of their identities. We should strive for diversity not only of race, ethnicity, and gender, but also of behavior style, socioeconomic class, discipline, institutional training, and more.

Let's use our words wisely to reshape these learning spaces, research spaces, and public spaces into realities that are truly welcoming to all and not just some. Ample evidence shows that Universal Design for Learning principles in classrooms and programs elevates the quality of learning equally for both students who are disabled and students who are not. Research programs that focus on constructing and supporting cohorts of systematically excluded individuals not only foster belonging but also collaboration and productivity (for instance the SREB Doctoral Scholars Program, the SACNAS National Diversity Conference, the BlackInX Network and more). Public spaces grounded in established frameworks like Courageous Conversations that start with foundational principles in reflection and curious inquiry can transform our abilities to effectively discuss and address race.

In short, we must stop maintaining the status quo and taking the easy path of convention instead of taking the more difficult path of continual learning, growing, and transforming. Only then can we as scientists, engineers, and scholars really achieve the transformative revolutions promised by innovation. Our work, our communities, and our futures demand it.

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Words matter when working to make academe and science more diverse (opinion)

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So you are looking for a checklist on how to achieve diversity in your program, discipline, or field. My rude awakening for you is that, unfortunately, no such list exists regardless of what you may have been told, and we must look somewhere we often avoid: inwards at ourselves.