Building Inclusive Communities Seminar Series: Graduate Community Builders Panel Discussion

March 29, 2021

The fifth event of our virtual series brought together student leaders to discuss their work building community in academia. Letícia Lima Angelini (She/Her) representing Alliance for Diversity in Science and Engineering at Northeastern University, Inés Lucía Patop (She/They) representing Diverse Brandeis Scholars, and Ufuoma Ovienmhada (She/Her) representing MIT Black Graduate Student Association shared strategies, successes, challenges, and advice in running graduate student organizations and changing the culture of academia to be more inclusive. Some of the takeaways from the event include:

• Communication within the group is key to ensure that anything done or said on behalf of the group is representative

• Establish community guidelines

• Pull others in by personal invitation and ask individuals to take on small responsibilities within the group

• Need to understand the history of an institution: what tactics have been tried before, what asks were made, what worked, what didn’t work and why

• “Don’t be afraid of being annoying” → persistence is key!

• Building community should be fun! Don’t underestimate the importance of joy. 

• Define your values, passions, and boundaries, and remember that we are students first

• Changes panelists want to see in academia to improve inclusion and retention: being more open about struggles and failure, inviting speakers who look like and sound like different students, giving students more of a say in faculty hiring

Recording of the Graduate Community Builders Panel from March 29, 2021

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Panelists: 

Letícia Lima Angelini (She/Her)

Affiliation: Alliance for Diversity in Science and Engineering at Northeastern University

Bio: Leticia is from Brazil and currently a fourth-year PhD candidate in Molecular Microbiology at Northeastern University. She recently ended her term as co-president of ADSE (Alliance for Diversity in Science and Engineering), a student organization that promotes diversity in STEM. 

Alliance for Diversity in Science and Engineering:

Our mission is to increase the participation of underrepresented groups (Women, Latinos, African-Americans, Native Americans, the LGBTQA community and persons with disabilities, etc.) in academia, industry, and government. ADSE supports, organizes, and oversees local, graduate student-run organizations that reach out to students and scientists of all ages and backgrounds. We aim to connect scientists across the nation, showcase non-traditional career paths and underrepresented minority experiences in STEM, and educate students at all levels about opportunities in the sciences.

Inés Lucía Patop (She/They)

Affiliation: Diverse Brandeis Scholars

Bio: Inés is from Argentina (deep south Latin American). She is a queer person that loves science. She did her undergrad in her hometown, started her PhD in Jerusalem and Berlin and then was transferred to Brandeis when the lab moved to the university. 

She is now the co-president of The Diverse Brandeis Scholars group, a group of students from diverse backgrounds who want to create a space for diversity within the Brandeis graduate sciences to be promoted and celebrated. Our main goals are the recruitment and retention of students from underrepresented backgrounds in the graduate science programs here at Brandeis.

The Diverse Brandeis Scholars (DBS) group is a collection of underrepresented minority students in the graduate science programs at Brandeis who came together to address issues uniquely faced by minority students in higher education.

Ufuoma Ovienmhada (She/Her)

Affiliation: MIT Black Graduate Student Association

Bio: Ufuoma Ovienmhada is a Master's student in the Space Enabled Research Group at the MIT Media Lab. In her research, Ufuoma creates low-cost data tools to enable the management of an invasive plant species that grows on Lake Nokoue in coastal West Africa. To design this tool, she combines co-design methods, satellite data analysis, in-situ water quality measurements and drone data for validation. Prior to arriving at MIT, she graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Her work experiences have trained her in engineering in low-resource environments and community-centered design. Outside of research, Ufuoma works on community building and campus activism with the MIT Black Graduate Student Association.

MIT Black Graduate Student Association:

GBSA is an organization that recognizes graduation with a Masters or Ph.D. as our #1 priority. Their goals include: 

EMPOWER

We want to empower our members so that they can properly transfer the usage of the tools acquired at MIT to successfully advance our community.

ENCOURAGE

We wish to provide a place of refuge. A place where African, African American, and Afro-Caribbean graduate students are encouraged to express ideas, concepts, and frustrations without rebuke.

ENTERTAIN

We try to provide opportunities for our membership to relax, relate, and release through healthy entertainment.

Moderator:

Theresa Davenport (She/Her/Hers) 

Bio: Theresa is a marine ecologist focused on habitat restoration to provide ecosystem functions and services. She is examining how restored oyster reefs enhance populations of the fishes and crabs that depend on them. She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center. Theresa is also the Co-President of Graduate Women in Science and Engineering (GWiSE) at Northeastern University, a student group with a mission to identify and break down the barriers limiting the advancement and retention of all women in STEM fields.