The fourth event in our 2020-2021 virtual series was led by Dr. Tariana V. Little and titled “Transforming Setbacks into Success: A Framework to Fail Forward.”

Our third seminar of the year, “How to Advocate for Yourself and Your Community,” was led by Dr. Ellise LaMotte, Director of the Center for STEM Diversity at Tufts University. This was our first discussion-based event of the year, where attendees had the opportunity to meet others in STEM and share advocacy experiences and strategies.

We held the second seminar of the year in our virtual speaker series, “Building Inclusive Communities,” on October 15th, 2020 with Deja Knight. The series consists of one seminar & discussion per month, and features a selected guest speaker to discuss the roles that we can play on our campuses to make learning and research more inclusive for everyone. The title of Deja’s talk was “Creating Inclusive and Safe Spaces for Minority and First-Generation Students That Effect Measurable Change.”

New England GWiSE hosted the first seminar of the year in our virtual speaker series, “Building Inclusive Communities,” with Prasha Sarwate Dutra on September 24th, 2020! The series consists of one seminar & discussion per month, and will feature a selected guest speaker to discuss the roles that we can play on our campuses to make learning and research more inclusive for everyone.

Due to concerns related to COVID-19, we decided to postpone our 2020 Spring to Action event, “Advocating for Ourselves and Others: How to Build Inclusive Communities.” We’ve included the incredible program we had lined up above. Although we are disappointed that we were unable to host the full event as planned, we look forward to having a modified, virtual version of this programming in late summer and fall.

NE GWiSE hosted our third annual Retreat at Tufts Medford on campus inclusivity. Graduate students from over 8 universities across New England heard from leading researchers, practitioners, and advocates about key challenges and solutions in empowering individuals to foster an inclusive campus climate.

NE GWiSE hosted our second annual Spring to Action Summit at Harvard University. Each year, the summit is held for local schools to tackle issues present in academic and STEM fields. This year the summit focused on mentorship in the sciences.

NE GWiSE hosted our second annual Summer Retreat at MIT on August 17th. Each year, the retreat is held to bring the constituents of NE GWiSE together to network, meet new members, and socialize around a central topic.

NE GWiSE hosted its Inaugural Spring to Action event at Tufts University School of Medicine. Spring to Action is an annual series focused on advocacy and policy building around a specific issue of importance to the graduate student community. This year, the focus was on sexual harassment, with the event title “Breaking the silence, building a collective: A forum on sexual harassment in higher education.” #SpringtoAction18