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Promoting diversity is an important part of ensuring that our society recognizes everyone's contribution, gives everyone an opportunity to be heard, and removes systemic obstacles to equity. Diversity of experience leads to a diversity of thought: by pushing each other to think about challenges from different perspectives, we can promote advancement.
As a rookie team, we were focused on creating a physically safe space. As our team intentionally has become more diverse, we are committed to creating a safe mental space for everyone, regardless of background. From our interviews for our social media campaigns, we have compiled a list of best practices for creating a safe workspace. We are working on presentations to educate team members on social issues in order to create an inclusive work environment. These resources will be available on our website and will be updated based on feedback to improve effectiveness. We have an incident form, so that reported incidents can be addressed as a team to ensure that we are working towards being supportive of all students. We have a partnership with our school’s newsletter and are drafting articles about the importance of diversity in STEM and encouraging people of all backgrounds to pursue STEM education.
As of right now the introduction to the curriculum and the Black Lives Matter curriculum are available. Curriculums related to topics such as women in STEM, LGBTQ+ in STEM, and more are coming soon. Please use the suggestion form below if you have any feedback on our existing presentations or have an ideas for future presentations.
We highlight STEM professionals from minority communities so that under-represented populations can see themselves in STEM fields; we interview and post about local STEM students and professionals to showcase diversity in STEM and give them an opportunity to share their stories. In the past, the campaigns have consisted of #ShareYourSTEMStory, #BlackSTEMStoriesMatter, and #STEMSafeSpaces.
#ShareYourSTEMStory is an opportunity for STEM students and professionals to tell their experiences in the STEM field, and #STEMSafeSpaces is dedicated to discussing the importance of having a safe space within the work space and how the STEM community can improve. Please let us know if you have any suggestions for how we can improve the forms.
Many STEM outreaches are aimed at girls and students of color. Most of our outreach events have been in partnership with the Main Street Academy, Jack and Jill, and the Jesse Draper Boys & Girls Club to help promote these events to students of color. We hosted a STEAM-y Tea, to celebrate women in STEAM. We are working with Clearwater Academy to develop outreach activities for students with disabilities. We also have an upcoming virtual event that will focus on bias in STEM and how a lack of representation can discriminate against minorities in fields related to medicine and AI.