year end series gathering: Building Inclusive Communities
May 26, 2021
The Year End Gathering capped off our 2020-2021 virtual seminar series, Building Inclusive Communities. This final event was discussion-based with a focus on community and belonging in grad school. Event activities continued discussions started at previous series events.
Our seminar series began last fall with Prasha S Dutra discussing the importance of sharing STEM stories to build community. During the year end event, participants developed and shared their STEM story. A common theme of this discussion was the question of who gets to be a scientist. Many participants shared feelings of not belonging in STEM. Most participants discussed having an advocate or wanting to prove others wrong as sources of inspiration for pursuing a degree in STEM.
Participants were then broken out into small discussions on the following topics:
Self or community advocacy to admin or faculty
Community building for grads 101
(discussion sheets include resources for further engagement)
Finally the event capped off with a social, ice breaker trivia!
Thank you to everyone who participated in Building Inclusive Communities with us this year!
